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BILLY TO-MORROW 
STANDS THE TEST 


By the Same Author 


BILLY TO-MORROW 
First volume of “Billy To- 
morrow Series.” Illustrated 
by Charles M. Relyea. 
12mo . . . . $1.25 

BILLY TO-MORROW IN 
CAMP. 

Illustrated by H. S. 
DeLay. 12mo . . . $1.25 


A. C.McCLURG&CO. 
PUBLISHERS 




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Oh, Billy, it ’s no use!” Erminie sobbed, as the boat 
grew smaller and smaller on the gray water 


BILLY TO-MORROW” 


SERIES 


( ( 


BILLY TO-MORROW 
STANDS THE TEST 


SARAH PRATT CARR 

Author of 

“The Iron Way,” “Billy To-morrow,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. DeLAY 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 


1911 



Copyright 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
1911 

Published November, 1911 


/ 


l,y 

\ 

©CI.A30()480 






CONTENTS 


Chapter 


Page 

I 

Excitement in the Fifth Avenue High 

11 

II 

Billy Puts Himself on Record 

26 

III 

“Pop” Streeter’s Proposition 

43 

IV 

Erminie, The Uncertain 

59 

V 

Erminie Fumbles the Game 

84 

VI 

The Revealing Night 

103 

VII 

Do Your Best and Then — Whistle . 

127 

VIII 

The Potato Roast .... 

140 

IX 

Face to the Sky 

146 

X 

The Scout 

160 

XI 

“Whose Glory was Redressing Human 



Wrong” 

175 

XII 

The Fight 

191 

XIII 

Erminie Ties Another Knot 

209 

XIV 

The Black Hand 

220 

XV 

A Gleam of Light .... 

234 

XVI 

A Night of Disaster .... 

251 

XVII 

Billy Wins 

268 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

“Oh, Billy, it 's no use!** Erminie sobbed, as the 
boat grew smaller and smaller on the gray 

water ....... Frontispiece 

Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his heart 
beating faster with a manly, protecting feeling 
new to him ....... 44 

“Were n*t you afraid?** Redtop asked when the 

first, busy part of the meal was over . . 186 '^ 

“Stay where you are till I speak** . . . . 202 

“What do you mean, Billy Boy, by refusing to speak 

tome?** . . . . . . . 226^ 

“Give her to me; I am fresh,’* he said, attempting 

to take Mrs. Smith from Billy’s arms . . 264 



t 


• ^ 


BILLY TO-MORROW 
STANDS THE TEST 


CHAPTER I 

EXCITEMENT IN THE FIFTH AVENUE HIGH 

I T was a gray afternoon, late in April and cold 
enough for March, when Billy Bennett, 
going out of the building to the school grounds, 
detected a new note in the usual hubbub. There 
were a hundred or more boys gathered in one 
corner and listening to some one who was 
speaking. 

Feeling in the school was intense. For the 
first time in its history there was an attempt 
to unite the student body under one head, 
thus depriving the class presidents of some 
of their power. The project was led by some of 
the best spirits, in the hope of gaining a better 


II 


12 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


name for the school, and many of the teachers 
were, without precedent, taking a quiet part. 

As Billy neared, he could hear above other 
angry voices the raucous, high-pitched tones of 
the cultus* Kid, otherwise Jim Barney, He was 
a stickler for the “Jim.” “Just plain Jim; no 
handles to my name,” he would say if offered the 
courtesy of “ Mr. Barney.” He had been for 
years the bully of his class, and now he aspired to 
be the boss of the school. He was entreating and 
menacing by turns, a master of the baser sort of 
eloquence. 

“You cheap skates! Call yourselves men, do 
you? There’s not one of you with enough back- 
bone to bolster a twine string! Why, you chew 
gum because you dass’n’t touch tobacco ; and one 
soda pop ’ll make the whole bunch of you 
dippy!” 

“Oh, cut it out!” mildly objected one of his 
own crowd. 

“Yes. And trot out your grouch, whatever it 
is,” another demanded. 

“It’s our grouch! I put it up to you,” the 

*Cultus is a Chinook word, signifjdng of little worth, 
bad. 


STANDS THE TEST 


13 


speaker shouted above the noise. “ Has a bunch 
of teachers, or even the principal or superinten- 
dent, a right to meddle with us, to say who we 
shall have for presidents of our classes or of the 
whole student body, if this thing of having a 
school president goes?” 

“Yes! Yes!” “They have!” “They ought 
to!” came from different quarters. 

“ I ’d like to know why,” the Kid blustered. 

“When students of this school, jmur own 
candidate even, follows girls and women on 
stilts — ” “Sis” Jones began. 

“ Girls on stilts! ” jeered some loud voice from 
the crowd, and the speaker laughed and nodded. 

But Reginald Steele’s clear tones rose above 
the clamor. “ You know what J ones means, J im 
Barney. Last week your man, Buckman, and 
two of his fellows followed some ladies and girls 
for nearly a block, using language that is a 
disgrace to any school.” 

“ Rot! I suppose you think girls ought to run 
this high school. And that’s what they’ll do if 
Hec Price gets elected.” He glared around on 
them, and let his eyes rest on Reginald an instant 
before continuing. “ I put it up to you fellows. 


14 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


what sort of a president will that grandmother 
prig make, that’s in with the girls and molly- 
coddles, in with the teachers, in with everybody 
that’s for style, and against a square deal for all. 
What sort of a fellow is Hec Price for presi- 
dent?” 

“A good one!” Billy called cheerily, coming 
forward from the rear of the crowd, where he 
had been listening. 

Billy was good to look at these days. His 
freckles were gone; and his skin, free from the 
blemish that mars so many growing boys, was 
girlishly fair. His cheeks had the red of full 
health, and his form was well knit and firm from 
plenty of work in the “ gym ” ; and although the 
dimple, much to his disgust still adorned his 
chin, it had broadened and squared to match 
his strong shoulders. 

Since entering school he had been allied with 
those opposing “ the Kid’s crowd,” yet he had 
been able through sheer good-nature to avoid a 
clash with the bully. But lately that had 
seemed inevitable, though Billy himself could 
not understand why. 

The speaker sighted Billy and challenged him. 


STANDS THE TEST 


15 


“You, Billy To-morrow, or Yesterday, or Billy 
Next Week, whatever you call yourself, what 
have you got to say about the teachers butting 
into student affairs?” He looked around over 
the boys, an angry gleam in his red-rimmed 
eyes. He was stocky, red of hair and skin, red 
of hose and tie, blustering, blowsy, yet powerful. 
The strong, uncontrolled passions of generations 
of ancestors culminated in him in conscious 
power, plus a tenacity and stratagem that were 
his own. His silent presence in the room would 
attract any eye, A reader of men was likely 
to turn away with regret, as when one sees a 
mighty stream capable of producing wealth 
and happiness for mankind, instead tearing 
through the smiling valley, leaving destruction 
in its way. 

He continued. “ Have we, or have we not, a 
right to run our student business ourselves? to 
elect our officers, whether class president or 
school president, without interference? Answer 
me that. Are we all sissies, to let the girls butt 
in, to let the high-brows whip us into knuckling 
to the teachers like kindergarten kids? You, 
Bill Bennett, what do you say to that?” 


i6 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“What’s the matter with the Kid?’’ asked 
Charley Harper, called “ Redtop ” because of 
his hair. “ I thought he rather liked Billy.” 

“Don’t you know? Billy’s copped his girl.” 
Sis Jones winked knowingly. 

“Gee! Not the Fish?” 

“Yep. Kid wouldn’t have cared if it had 
been Sally or Belle, they’re both dead gone on 
him; but Fishie’s different.” 

“So that’s — ” 

“Go on, Billy! Answer him!” cried several 
of Jim’s opponents. 

Billy stepped in front of the crowd, which 
shifted restlessly, and waited a moment looking 
them over, trying to arrange his thoughts so that 
they might carry weight. He had no liking for 
the fight his mates were forcing on him. He 
knew the Kid’s “line-up” was against the best 
of the school, including the girls; knew that his 
methods were, to say the least, unpleasant, and 
important enough to cause anxiety to the Prin- 
cipal. 

Yet Billy was no shirk. He could think on 
foot better than most of the students ; and when 
his enthusiasm was aroused no one better loved a 
“ scrap ” of wits. 


STANDS THE TEST 


17 


He began slowly: “There are several ques- 
tions we must each put up squarely to ourselves 
before we can rightly answer Mr. Barney. First, 
what’s a school for?” 

“Come off!” growled Jim. ' “Stick to — ” 

“Shut up, you!” shouted Redtop, who had 
grown in size and muscle till he was a force Jim 
respected. “Billy didn’t interrupt you. Be 
game!” 

The Kid subsided. He prided himself on 
allowing fair play to all. 

“ Second, why do we hire superintendents and 
principals, to say nothing of teachers, if they are 
to have no authority over us that we should 
respect? And — ” 

“We don’t hire ’em; our fathers do,” objected 
one of Jim’s admirers. 

“That brings me to my third question: Who 
pays for the schools?” Billy stopped an instant 
to think out his argument, and the pause was 
more effective than he knew. Some of the boys 
were considering a phase of the school question 
not often presented to them. 

“Nobody’s talking about the cost of schools; 
it’s us — ourselves we’re talking about. We 
want — ” 


i8 BILLY TO-MORROW 

Redtop promptly “chucked” the turbulent 
one. 

Billy went on. “At least we don’t pay for 
them, nor hire the teachers. But they are re- 
sponsible to those who do hire them for the good 
name of the schools. If students are lazy or 
lawless the teachers are called to account.” 

“Well, what’s the matter with us? Aren’t 
we all right?” Jim loomed formidably in front 
of Billy. 

“No! We’re not all right, Jim Barney. If 
you and your crowd, and the sort of manners 
toward women and girls you stand for, — if that’s 
to be the standard for this school, I ’m ashamed 
of it, and ashamed of any principal that will 
stand for it, — when he knows it.” Billy’s eyes 
flashed and he shook his hand at Jim. 

“You’ll be the tell-tale, I suppose.” Barney 
lunged forward and reached his long arm for 
Billy’s leg; but half a dozen hands pulled him 
back; and more hisses than he had believed pos- 
sible warned him that he was on the wrong tack. 

“ It’s because each year Jim Barney has put in 
his man for class president, and each year his 
class has made a worse name for itself; and now 


STANDS THE TEST 


19 


he wants to boss the whole school and run his 
man for the new office, — it’s because of this con- 
dition that the teachers think it time to 
interfere.” Billy leaned forward and looked 
fearlessly into the face of the Kid. “ If you ’ve 
any remarks coming, you can make them later 
to me personally.” 

“Gee!” Redtop whispered to Sis Jones; “I 
wish Hec Price was here to see that! Billy’s 
called the Kid’s bluff.” 

“As to the last proposition,” Billy continued, 
“who does pay for the schools? Do we kids put 
up the money or the brains or the anxiety, or — 
the any other things it takes to put through a 
system? Did we build this great institution of 
the city schools? It is mighty easy to knock it, 
but I don’t see any school kids offering anything 
better. Do you? I think as long as the State, — 
but it’s the fathers and mothers really, — as long 
as they hand us a chance to get an education it’s 
up to us to accept it decently or — ” he glared at 
Jim defiantly; “or quit!” 

A burst of noisy applause warned Barney that 
his leadership was imperilled. He looked 
angrily around and was about to speak, when 


20 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


Billy, with a power new to his mates and start- 
ling to the bully, launched a threat that electri- 
fied them all. “Kid Barney, your man for 
president is a rowdy, and you know it. We are 
going to expose him and defeat him.” 

“ Not on your life, you won’t! ” Barney hurled 
back with a wicked gesture; and his followers 
broke out noisily. 

But Billy’s voice rose above the din, the more 
impressive for dominating it. “We’re going to 
have a man in this new office that represents the 
whole school, — a man that’s honest and capable, 
and a gentleman besides.” 

“A kid-glove sneak — ” 

“And if by any chance your man gets in, Jim 
Barney, all of us who stand for the decent thing 
will cut the student body as an organization.” 

This threat met an instant’s silence. It was 
Billy’s own idea, born that moment; but when 
its great import filtered through those surprised 
brains, a storm broke that neither Billy nor Jim 
could master. 

“Rats! What good would that do?” Jim at 
last made himself heard. 

“ It will be blazoned in every paper in the 


STANDS THE TEST 


21 


State,” Billy replied quickly. “The names of 
the students that follow your man will be pub- 
lished, as well as the names of those standing 
with the teachers for decency. And you ’ll find, 
Jim Barney, when it comes to a show-down, 
there won’t be many fathers and mothers patting 
you on the back, even among those who don’t 
wear kid gloves.” 

A roar drowned Billy, but at last they saw 
that he had more to say and subsided into an ex- 
pectant hush. 

“ I propose we form a Good Citizens’ Club 
under Mr. Streeter’s system, ask the girls to join, 
and help the Playground Progressives carry 
their campaign for a clean playground, no im- 
proper language, and a larger respect for the 
teachers and law.” 

“Well, I ’ll be lead-dog to a blind man if that 
is n’t a little the rawest dose yet! ” Even that bit 
of choice English did not relieve the Kid, for he 
stared silently around at the boys, evidently 
trying to grasp the situation. 

“We got fool clubs enough, except for fun. 
I’m in for that any time, but not for more 
work,” an overgrown, bulgy-looking boy yawned. 


22 


BILLY T O-M O R R O W 


^^More work?” jeered Sis Jones; “did you 
ever do any work, Lazyleg?” 

“ Cut itl School ’s rotten anyway,” the yawner 
returned ; “ a kid don’t need it like the old folks 
let on.” 

“ Any slob that goes to school after he ’s out of 
the grades, if he don’t have to, is dippy,” 
drawled another. 

Mumps stepped forward and faced them. 
Someway, when Sydney Bremmer, the ex-news- 
boy, — called “Mumps” from his heavy jaw, — 
when he said anything, people always listened 
in spite of his style of speech. 

“ I lay you’re mistaken, you wise kids. Thirty 
years ago a kid could get along in the world 
without much schooling; but now, if a man ex- 
pects to do more than dig some other man’s 
ditches, he’s got to kick in for things he can’t 
learn in any grammar school. The chap that 
don’t know enough to go to school to-day is the 
one that’s dippy.” 

“ Hooray for Mumps 1 ” Redtop bellowed with 
a grin of contempt at the bulgy one. Then to 
Billy, “What’s your scheme, an 5 rway?” 

“ It’s Mr. Streeter’s idea, a corking good one. 


STANDS THE TEST 


23 

He’ll come up and tell us about it if we ask 
him.” 

“We’ll do it!” shouted several at once. 

“No! We don’t want any swells running 
things here,” Jim struck in; but even his partial 
ear heard fresh warning in the conflicting cries. 
Some suspicion of a force beneath the surface 
that was growing in strength angered him, but 
he did not reckon it at its full strength, and he 
displayed an ill temper that he would better 
have controlled. “ And say, any kid that kicks 
in on this frame-up has to cut my crowd from 
this on.” He started off, but at the edge of the 
crowd turned and called, “Come on, kids!” 

There was a breathless moment. The dullest 
one there knew that this was a crisis, knew that 
the smouldering rebellion against Jim Barney’s 
tyranny had at last broken into open war 

None understood the situation better than 
Billy. “Fellows, think before you follow Jim 
Barney. His game is as cultus as his name; and 
this hour starts the open fight between rowdyism 
and decency. All that want to line up for things 
we shall not be ashamed of, stay!” 

For a second no one stirred. 


24 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“Come onl” Jim shouted, paused a second, 
then waved his hand toward Billy. “Or stand 
in with lily-necked Bill and his Fishl” 

With this parting gibe that set Billy’s face 
blazing, he wheeled and walked off the grounds 
with no backward glance. 

Slowly, one by one at first, then in groups as 
their courage rose, about thirty boys followed 
him off. Down on the street they sent back one 
or two loud shouts, and were soon out of hear- 
ing. 

“This is better than I thought it would be,” 
Billy said to those remaining; “but Jim Barney 
can divide the school a good deal nearer even 
than some of you think. How many here are 
in for an active fight for the good name of the 
Fifth Avenue High? ” 

Nearly every one shouted “ I! ” 

“ How many like the idea of a Good Citizens’ 
Club?” 

Again the vote was largely in favor. 

“ How many will stand for the girls joining? ” 
Groans and objections warned him he was on 
thin ice. 

“Well, they can have their clubs separately. 


STANDS THE TEST 


25 


then, as they do in the playground campaign. 
How many favor a preliminary talk from Mr. 
Streeter?” 

This carried. • 

“ All right. I ’ll put it up to the Principal, set 
a day, and post it on the bulletin board.” 

“All the committee for the Price campaign 
meet at his house to-night,” Redtop yelled. 

In the midst of the noise that followed. 
Mumps went up and slipped his arm into Billy’s 
higher one. “ Billy, you ’re up against a tough 
job, and I’ve got some pointers for you. Any 
time for me?” 

“Sure! Come up to dinner, can you?” 

“All right.” 

The two walked off together. 


CHAPTER II 


BILLY PUTS HIMSELF ON RECORD 

N O Student of the Fifth Avenue High was 
more a credit to it than Sydney Bremmer. 
A motherless boy wholly orphaned by the great 
fire in San Francisco, he had lived, tramp- 
like, as a newsboy, till adventuring into the 
newer opportunities of the City of Green Hills. 
He had been Billy’s fellow-traveller on the 
steamer that brought them both from Califor- 
nia ; and his efforts to make good at each turn of 
his fortune’s wheel enlisted every one in his 
favor. 

It was Mr. Streeter who, after watching the 
boy at Camp Going Some the summer before, 
advised the lad as to night-school work, helped 
him with his studies, and at length found a good 
home for him with a woman who lived alone 
and wished a boy for errands. Here Sydney 
went, studied early and late, and passed the ex- 
aminations admitting him to the high school at 
the beginning of the winter semester. He was 
26 


BILLY TO-MORROW 27 

a general favorite with his class, and on account 
of his friendship with Billy and Hector, was 
well known to the juniors. 

As the two boys walked along in the gray 
evening, an unusual silence fell between them, 
caused on Billy’s part by a rush of plans for the 
coming campaign. But Sydney was occupied 
with Billy’s personal affairs, and puzzled to 
know how to say certain things he feared Billy 
would resent. 

“ Lost your buzzer?” At last Billy waked to 
the fact that they had walked many blocks with- 
out speaking. 

“No; but you won’t like my buzz.” 

“Try it and see. You’ve a right to say what 
you please to me. Mumps. Hand it over.” 

“It’s about Miss Fisher.” 

Billy turned and slapped him on the shoulder. 
“ Good for you ! I ’m sick of hearing her called 
‘the Fish.’ It’s a positive disgrace, that nick- 
name.” 

Sydney’s reply was halting, as if he were feel- 
ing his way. “ Did you ever reckon it might be 
partly her own fault?” 

“No. Why?” 


28 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“Well, they call Miss Carter 'the Queen’; 
does that make you sick?” 

“That’s different. I began that myself. We 
always called her that in California, — the Queen 
of Sheba. But Fish — ” He made a gesture 
of disgust. 

“Yet, if the boys called Miss Carter ‘the 
Cart’ would you feel the same about it?” 

“ Search me. I don’t get you.” 

“It’s this way: Miss Carter is the style of 
girl that makes any name you give her — well, 
kind of fine and all right. But with Miss 
Fisher—” 

“Well?” 

“It’s up to the girl herself. She’s been in 
the school nearly four years. She’s two years 
older than you, and — ” 

“Two years is nothing,” Billy growled. He 
was sensitive on that point. 

“It’s a lot, Billy. She’s twice as old as you 
are in knowing things, — some of ’em it would 
be a whole lot better if she did n’t know. And 
others she knows — well, she knows ’em just be- 
cause she’s a girl; and you — you’re only a kid, 
Billy; not as old as I am in some ways.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


29 


Billy stopped and wheeled. “Say! You’re 
down on her too. Every one has a black eye 
for her, it seems.” He walked on, his face 
averted. 

“ No, I ’m not; but I don’t want to see her get 
you in trouble, Billy; and that’s what she will, 
without meaning it, too ; because the Kid ’s hank- 
ering that way, and mighty mad at you.” 

“Oh!” With a rush Billy understood some 
things that had before been enigmatic. “ She 
never cared for Jim,” he said presently. 

“ Maybe not, but she made him think so. 
See?” 

“ I see that we have no business to be talking 
over any girl in this way.” Billy spoke coldly, 
and Sydney felt it. 

“ Billy Bennett, you know I ain’t the kind to 
harm any girl kid. I wouldn’t talk this over 
with any living kid but you. But you’re the 
best friend I got — except Mr. Streeter — and 
I’m not going to see you — her too — get stung 
if I can help it. My advice is, go slow there; 
and you ’ll be sorry if you don’t take it.” 

They had arrived at the Wright home, where 
Billy’s sister and brother-in-law, Hal, as well as 


Mrs. Bennett, always had a warm welcome for 
Sydney. 

There was no time for further confidential 
speech, for as soon as the new baby, Billy’s 
nephew, had been duly exhibited, dinner was 
served; and afterwards both boys had appoint- 
ments. 

Billy went out of his way to accompany Syd- 
ney, who was to attend a meeting of his troop 
down town, the Chetwoots (black bears), the 
newsboys’ troop of the Boy Scouts. Billy did 
not wish it known that he was to call on Erminie 
Fisher, especially after their conversation con- 
cerning her. 

Ever since a- day in early winter when she 
had caught her foot in a car track and fallen, 
and Billy that moment passing, had helped her 
up and back to her home, his calls had grown 
more and more frequent. 

Conditions in his own home made these calls 
doubly pleasant. The advent of his small 
nephew had robbed him largely of both his 
mother and his freedom, for he was rather a 
noisy boy around the house, and the youngster 
resented noise. And in place of his mother’s 


STANDS THE TEST 


31 


good-night talks, now rare, Billy found a lur- 
ing substitute in the flattering chatter of the 
attractive young woman at 745 East Street. 

Erminie was beautiful and subtle; beautiful, 
because she could not help being so; subtle, 
partly by nature and partly because all her life, 
by means of wheedling and cajolery, she had ad- 
roitly managed — or evaded — her coarse, drink- 
ing, but clever father. There were times, how- 
ever, when no art prevailed against his tyranny. 
Still she was not bad, but rather the victim of 
her parentage and environment. She was bril- 
liant, generous, energetic; and when aroused to 
its need, sincere and faithful. 

Her mother was not wise. Her hopes for Er- 
minie were all matrimonial; and her oftenest 
repeated advice was, “ Keep your eye peeled for 
the chap in the automobile. Sis. It’s money that 
makes the woman go ; and your face is your for- 
tune only when you’re young.” 

Into this girl’s sordid life came Billy, clean, 
young, with high ambitions. Little he dreamed 
that Erminie’s foot, purposely stuck between the 
tracks, was as well able as the other to bear her 
weight during that limping walk home; and not 


32 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


for any bribe would she have confessed; for if 
the acquaintance began merely as an escapade, 
it had grown into a friendship which she cher- 
ished as the most beautiful thing in her life. 

She was looking for him this evening and saw 
him when he entered the block. Before he could 
ring she was at the door. “Let’s walk in the 
p^rk,” she said breathily, closing the door behind 
her. “ Dad — dad and ma are quarrelling, and 
I can’t bear you to hear them.” She sighed and 
walked on rapidly, leaving Billy with no alter- 
native but to follow. 

He noticed a tone of weariness he had never 
heard before, for she was the embodiment of 
high spirits. Also he thought it strange that she 
should not even greet him. “Is it — is it any- 
thing you could tell me about? ” 

“ I ought not, Billy, but I ’m going to — I 
can’t keep it to myself any longer.” She looked 
up at him, and he saw both anger and defiance 
in her dark, restless eyes. “ My father wants me 
to quit school and marry an old fellow — a man 
nearly forty, who’s got the goods — money — 
and is crazy about me.” 

Billy gasped. “Gee!” For a minute he 


STANDS THE TEST 


33 


could say no more, and they stood looking at 
each other till a passer jostled them into mov- 
ing on, 

“But you don’t have to! Girls aren’t like — 
they aren’t property any more.” 

“No; but some fathers think they are.” 

“ Does your father? ” 

“Dad wouldn’t put it that way; but you see, 
Billy, this man who — who wants to marry me — 
is awfully strong with the city ring, and in some 
way he has dad cinched. Dad thinks he could 
make it square by getting him into the family.” 
Her little half-smile was quite without conceit. 

Billy looked at her a moment before replying. 
Any one seeing her then could have forgiven her 
a little vanity. The low sun, piercing the clouds 
for a good-night glance, brought out the rusty 
reds in her softly waving dark hair, hair that at 
the roots melted into her creamy skin through a 
lighter shading that was neither red nor brown, 
but seemed to have been mixed on Nature’s pal- 
ette for no other face than hers. Her eyes, usu- 
ally too shallow and brightly brown, were now 
deep and misty with an emotion Billy could only 
guess; while all the loveliness of her gracious 


34 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


face and figure was enhanced by a womanly dig- 
nity new to Billy, new to herself, and unrealized. 

“ I guess ’most any man ’d like to get into your 
family that way.” All the man in him had risen 
to her beauty; but he was not thinking of him- 
self — not seeing himself in that relation to her. 
His remark was entirely impersonal. 

She smiled, but instantly it changed to a look 
of pain. She had no measure but that of per- 
sonality — herself. “Billy! Don’t! Don’t! 
That’s the sort of thing they all say, and they 
don’t mean it. I’ve — I’ve liked you awfully 
just because you never handed out that stuff. 
If I can’t trust you, there’s — there’s nobody.” 
There was a little catch in her voice, and she 
hastened on. 

Billy was astonished, puzzled. In their early 
acquaintance he had felt and resented her co- 
quetry, and very soon interested her in other 
ways; had established the same sort of comrade- 
ship that existed in his earlier boy and girl 
friendships; but as their acquaintance progressed 
he found it rich with new experiences. 

This girl was no frank child, but a woman, 
full-grown, delightfully attractive in her won- 


STANDS THE TEST 


35 


derful knowledge of things he had not even con- 
sidered; and alluring in her teasing, half tender, 
half patronizing manner toward him. 

Billy’s own feeling was as perplexing to him. 
His mother had warned him against the usual 
“ puppy love,” so frank, so ludicrous, that, did 
not most fathers and mothers have a blushing yet 
happy remembrance of first-love affairs, they 
would promptly lock up the younger culprits 
till the spell wore off. 

But Billy’s case was different. Erminie, pre- 
eminently the beauty of the school, knew well 
how to steer an affair safely and in propriety, as 
when she chose she knew how to make a fellow 
look “the silliest sort,” in this last art making 
her largest success with the Kid. 

In the park they chose a seat slightly back 
from the main paths that they might talk freely. 
Billy had intended to heed Sydney’s warning so 
far as not to be seen out with Erminie for a few 
weeks. He knew that turbulent days were com- 
ing, and if Jim really cared for her, Billy had no 
desire to inflame him unnecessarily. 

Yet here and now that very thing happened. 
They were barely seated when he passed them. 


36 BILLY TO-MORROW 

halted a second, lifted his hat, but was not rec- 
ognized by Erminie, and passed on with a scowl 
that Billy understood. 

“ How was it you did n’t bow to him? ” 

“ I never will, after what he said about you. 
I heard what happened this afternoon.” 

Billy was uneasy. “It doesn’t matter about 
me, but he ’ll get back at you some way. I wish 
you’d speak to him next time, square it with 
him.” 

“No, I won’t. He can’t speak falsely of my 
best — of my friends and expect to keep in with 
me.” 

“But—” 

“ Billy, don’t waste time on him. I ’m up 
against the worst ever, and I want your advice.” 

“My advice!” He laughed. Yet what boy 
is not flattered by such a request from a lovely 
girl older than himself? “Are you banking on 
my wisdom? Yours is much greater.” 

“Not for what I wish to know, Billy. Tell 
me about Mr. Alvin Short.” 

He faced her quickly. “Alvin Short! I don’t 
know anything exactly, except that his reputa- 
tion is as bad as a man’s can be. I get it from 
my brother Hal.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


37 


“A grafter?” 

“Yes, and worse.” 

“Worse?” 

“Yes. For one thing, he grafts within the 
law; but those he cinches get it — ” Billy lifted 
an eloquent finger to his neck. 

“ I was afraid so. That’s where he’s got dad, 
I ’m afraid.” 

“Gee! Then he’s — ” Billy paused, a great 
disgust for the man rising, but to be routed by 
a hot sympathy for the girl. “By gracious! 
You won’t have anything to do with him, will 
you?” 

“No.” She looked at him earnestly for a 
moment. “No,” she said again with a hint of 
fatality in her voice; “but that means that I must 
run away from home.” 

“Run — away — from home?” 

“ Yes.” She was touched to wistfulness by the 
thought of what his home must be if no such 
possible contingent had occurred in his life. “ If 
I don’t. I’ll have to marry Alvin Short; daddy 
will make me.” 

“ How can he?” 

“ Oh, Billy, don’t ask me. Fathers have ways. 
If Cousin Will were here he could help me.” 


38 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“You never told me about him. Did I ever 
see him?” 

“No. He’s not a cousin really. Uncle 
Henry’s wife was married before, and Will is 
her son. We were great chums till they moved 
to Oregon a few years ago.” 

Billy looked at her, speculating on the rem- 
iniscent light that came into her eyes as she 
gazed absently off into the west. 

“Will was as good as a brother, — better, — he 
didn’t tease. If he was here he’d not let them 
make me marry if I didn’t want to.” 

“You aren’t old enough to marry!” Billy 
burst out vehemently. 

She smiled faintly. “ I ’m more than two 
years older than ma was, and she thinks it would 
be fine because Alvin — Mr. Short — has so 
much money.” 

“Still she won’t — surely she won’t — ” He 
hesitated, unable to picture a mother who would 
sacrifice her daughter to such a man. He had 
seldom seen the tired, frowzy woman who kept 
out of sight when Erminie had callers. 

“ Ma always does as dad says. It’s the easiest 
way to keep peace in the family. Sometimes 


STANDS THE TEST 


39 


she spunks up a little, as to-day. Daddy ’s 
generally good to her, though; to me, too, if 
I do as he wants. But lately he won’t stand for 
anything from us.” 

“What can you do for a living?” 

She sighed and drew in her lip. “Nothing 
well, Billy; but I can learn housework, I sup- 
pose.” 

“Don’t you know that already?” He thought 
of his capable mother, of his sister, who was a 
good housekeeper as well as an accomplished 
musician. 

“No. Ma has always made me save my 
hands and complexion, study, take music, go to 
dancing school, and all that, because she was 
sure I ’d marry rich.” 

Billy thought hard. Wild notions of succor- 
ing this girl, of taking her to his own home, of 
leaving school and going to work that he might 
support her, of doing something, anything 
worthy of a man on whom womanhood calls 
for help. A dozen equally impossible plans 
surged through his excited brain; but he could 
not think of anything definite, practical enough. 

“ Don’t look so hurt — so angry, Billy. Some- 


40 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


thing will turn up. You’ve told me what I 
wanted to be sure about, the sort of man Alvin 
Short is, and — ” 

“ Perhaps some of it isn’t true. I ’ll find out 
exactly.” 

“ Enough is true to decide me. The man I 
marry must have a good name, if he hasn’t a 
dollar.” 

“You won’t think about run — about any 
change right away?” 

“No. I guess I can coax dad off — and Mr. 
Short — till school closes. I want my diploma.” 

“Couldn’t you teach?” 

“No, Billy, I’m not built that way; but I 
can scrub if necessary; and I will, before I’ll 
marry Alvin Short.” 

Billy looked at her pretty hands, remember- 
ing what melodies they had drawn from the 
piano on the many evenings he and Erminie had 
sung together; and his anger rose again. 

“We must go back. If dad knows I ’ve been 
out with any one but Mr. Short, he ’ll be mad.” 

“ But I ’m just a boy.” 

The bitterness in his tone did not escape her. 
“Don’t fret. You’re plenty big enough and old 


STANDS THE TEST 


41 

enough to make dad mad, and Alvin Short 
jealous.” 

She rose and looked into his face as he stood 
beside her, head and shoulders taller. She 
could no more help saying and looking the 
pleasant, flattering thing to those she cared for 
than she could help breathing. It was part of 
her charm. She was always looking more than 
she meant, too, and having to use all her art to 
escape the results. 

Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his 
heart beating faster with a manly, protecting 
feeling new to him. “ Anyway I ’m big enough 
and old enough to do just my level best to make 
things easy for you. Let me know how I can, 
won’t you?” 

“Yes, Billy, I will. Oh, you’re such a com- 
fort!” And because she was worn out by a 
stormy interview with her father that she was 
too proud to repeat, she could not restrain the 
sob that came with the last word. 

That was too much for impressionable Billy. 
He put his arms around her and kissed her. 

Often in fun and frolic he had kissed girls 
more to tease them than to please himself; but 


42 BILLY TO-MORROW 

this was very different, — his first man’s kiss; 
and with its sweetness mingled a quick-born 
sense of responsibility and the acceptance of a 
man’s part. He had put himself on record with 
her; the kiss was the compact. 

They walked for blocks in silence, and sepa- 
rated at the end of her street with but a word 
of good-bye; speech seemed superfluous. 

That night Billy went to bed having a secret 
his mother could not share, for it was Erminie’s 
rather than his own. Life seemed very porten- 
tous, big with duties and prospects that be- 
longed to a new world. All his past was but a 
flash, a gleam of childish nonsense. Now he 
was a man! 


CHAPTER III 


“pop” STREETER’S PROPOSITION 

F or the first time he could remember, Billy 
was sleepless till the sun rose. All night 
long he thought and thought. He had consid- 
ered his life rather complex — he was leader of 
one of the patrols of his troop, the Olympics; 
he had a part in the school drama which he had 
believed very important. And on waking came 
the sudden remembrance of the talk Mr. 
Streeter was to give soon on the matter of 
Good Citizens’ Clubs. Billy was sponsor for 
that, and must see it through. Also it looked 
still more as if he would not be able to avoid 
the clash with the bully. 

But all this was trivial now, childish. He 
could no longer think of himself alone, — there 
would be two. That kiss — that kiss was his 
pledge, a consecration of his life to Erminie’s 
happiness. 

By the time the sun had struck through the 
43 


44 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


window into his large attic room he had mapped 
out his course. He would have to continue 
school till vacation — his mother would insist 
on that; but by that time he would have secured 
work of some sort. He regretted having sold 
the “ ha’nt” in California and invested his money 
with his mother’s — by Mr. Smith’s advice — in 
the City of Green Hills; but it was too late to 
change that. Yet he would work hard, attend 
night school, and prepare himself for his real 
life-business, which was to be Journalism. He 
spelled it with a capital, for he would be no 
small truckling reporter, but a faithful, inspir- 
ing leader of the people. 

Resolutely he put aside the thought of mar- 
riage although it lay, coiled and conscious like 
fate, at the back of all his plans. Other men 
married young, why not one more? The con- 
ventions were ridiculous; a man was a man 
when he was grown! He drew himself up and 
measured again before his mirror. Almost six 
feet! 

Yet he must not subject Erminie to ridicule. 
The world must see that she was marrying a 
man who could support and protect her. He 


STANDS THE TEST 


45 


would not have to wait very long, — he looked 
twenty-one, — and his mother would consent 
when she saw he was well prepared, saw how 
pitiful was Erminie’s situation. Shyly — though 
there was none to see — he rubbed his rough 
chin and wondered how he would look with 
mustache and imperial. 

The elation of the night still lifted him. His 
body was strangely light; he felt as if he could 
move a mountain. The need for secrecy in- 
creased the stimulation, and he looked on forest, 
lake, and Sound with new vision. The yellow 
rose of sunrise touched Cascades and Olympics 
alike with a splendor he had not before recog- 
nized, and lighted the vast reaches between 
ranges with a clear thin radiance not seen in 
southern lands. 

Billy’s heart ached with this new fulness of 
life. Visions undreamed before opened his eyes 
to his own manhood; and the impulse came to 
put this experience into rhythm, — the impulse 
that touches every normal young creature. 
Some may not have the wit to fix it on paper, but 
all sing the song. 

Billy sang it, — sang in a lilting, rather diffi- 


46 BILLY TO-MORROW 


cult metre, beginning ambitiously with an apos- 
trophe to his love, 

“ Ermine-white soul of my Erminie,” 

and leaping immediately to the next rhyme 
which should be “ burn in me ” — he was not 
acquainted with the exactions of prosody. How- 
ever, his Muse proceeded for a couple of verses; 
and if she limped at times, it was no more than 
appears in the work of some real poets when 
they push the lady too hard. 

He read the lines several times, softly whis- 
pering the passioned words. They sounded 
rather good, though not by a tithe were they ad- 
equate. What miserable, foolish little things 
were written words! Still he marvelled that he 
could write even these. He would copy them 
on a typewriter and gave them to Erminie. No 
one could then guess their authorship, not even 
her father should he chance upon them. 

At breakfast he was silent, preoccupied; but 
his mother, being tired from a night of watch- 
ing with the baby, who had been fretful, did not 
notice Billy, nor object when he said he would 
not be home at noon. 



Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his heart beat- 
ing faster with a manly, protecting feeling new to him 






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STANDS THE TEST 


47 


He hurried off, hoping to meet Erminie in 
the halls before she went to her class-room ; but 
she was barely prompt, passing him as the bell 
rang, with a hasty nod. Billy thought it cool, 
till he saw that Walter Buckman was right be- 
hind her. 

The hours droned by, seemingly interminable. 
Automatically he went from class to class. 
Twice he had to be reminded that the bell had 
tapped. In the midst of defining the powers of 
the Constitution of the United States of America, 
he saw a picture of a little' house with a vine 
over it, and Erminie sitting in the tiny living- 
room. And while walking down the hall to his 
German Class he built still other castles, fol- 
lowed impossible adventures that involved Er- 
minie, himself, and two other men who wanted 
her; and vanquished them both just at the mo- 
ment his teacher said, “Guten Morgen, Herr 
Bennett.” 

Yet as the day proceeded, he had to wake to 
his many duties. At the noon recess he was 
besieged by boys asking of the meeting to be 
addressed in the assembly-room by Mr. Streeter, 
its importance, and if they could not go would 


48 BILLY TO-MORROW 

he tell them all about it later? And the girls 
appealed to him to know if they were really 
invited. A delayed English exercise had to be 
copied; and at the moment — hoped for, 
watched for — when Erminie went down the 
main hall on her way back from luncheon, a 
teacher was explaining to Billy some stubbornly 
hidden point in his geometry. 

Two o’clock came finally, and Billy, waiting 
till the last moment, hoping vainly to see Er- 
minie, went to the assembly-room, where a 
crowd of noisy boys waited for Mr. Streeter’s 
coming. 

“Who is he, anyway?” asked a boy new to 
the city and the school. 

“ He’s the best, jolliest ever,” Billy answered. 
“ They say he ’s never grown up and never will. 
But the boys like him that way, and the fathers 
and mothers trust him to the limit.” 

“What does he do?” 

“For a living? Nothing now. He’s had a 
fortune come to him, ten times as much a year 
as he used to earn.” 

“That must beat the old game for fun.” 

“He gets his fun with the boys, — spends his 


STANDS THE TEST 


49 

time and money that way. You see he ’s had the 
university, Europe, and all that.” 

When Mr. Streeter tapped for order, it was 
instant, for he always had some message the boys 
were eager to hear, though they knew as little 
of the scope of his work as did their busy fathers. 

He had a round, jolly face; and near each end 
of his brown mustache a dimple that was the 
envy of every girl who knew him. But in spite 
of dimples, and kind eyes that grew dark and 
tender at a tale of suffering, those eyes could 
compel, the dimples could disappear in a look 
that few disregarded. 

After his greeting, and one of the funny sto- 
ries that he told well, he said, “ I have a mes- 
sage more serious than usual for you to-day, a 
plan that touches not only you but your city of 
the future, for which in five years nearly every 
one of you before me will be responsible. 

“ I wonder if you know, boys and girls, how 
different this city of ours is from the older, 
Eastern cities? It has risen almost by magic. 
Your fathers and mothers are still busy with 
their hard fight with nature, cutting down trees 
and washing mountains into the sea, filling deep 


50 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


valleys or making land where water was. They 
don’t have time to think of the future. 

“But it’s coming, and it will have as hard 
nuts to crack as any we have now. I wonder if 
you wish to learn a little about them now, before 
they are dropped down on you? 

“Don’t we want a beautiful city? Want our 
city to look as well on post cards as Paris looks, 
or any city on earth? No city in the world has 
more beauty from nature; if we should do as 
well with our building as Paris has with hers, 
all the people on earth would sell all their goods 
and travel here to see us, — come any way they 
could, on foot if they couldn’t fly, — to see the 
beautiful City of Green Hills. 

“ Do you know how we could have it that 
way? By making out of every boy and girl liv- 
ing here a good citizen, a patriotic citizen, who 
would no more be wasteful of her wealth or 
beauty than he would strike himself. You are 
beginning here in the right way. Your play- 
ground politics, your attempt to make it a clean 
place, beautiful and pleasant for ear as well as 
eye, — that is fine. But nothing of that sort 
amounts to much unless it reaches out to all: 


STANDS THE TEST 


51 


that’s it, to all. No city is fine or lasting, or 
ought to last, if the set of people that are making 
fine avenues and boulevards let its poor folk live 
in holes and sow tin cans instead of roses in 
the alleys.” 

He stopped a moment to get the temper of 
the meeting. They knew that his hobby was 
hunting boys, to help them. He hunted them 
as other men hunt game, or business opportuni- 
ties. Only the recording angel knew how many 
waifs he “rounded in for rations.” The street 
boys adored him for his power as well as for his 
goodness. He was the champion all-round am- 
ateur athlete of the town, and though slow to 
anger, in the language of the “newsies,” when 
“ he does let go his bunch o’ fives, skidoo the 
bunch!” 

There were plenty of cheers, and cries of, 
“Go on!” 

“ Scouts and Sunday schools and school poli- 
tics are all good; but we need something that 
includes all in one larger work, as the schools 
and the city include all. I have thought of a 
chain of Young Citizens’ Clubs that should 
reach all. How many of you know about your 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


52 

city, her population, income, resources, officers? 
Would you like to know? I am willing to lead 
such a movement if you’d like it. 

“ There is n’t time to tell you in detail all the 
different schemes I have thought out! Bands — 
I will see that every boy that will learn is taught 
to play some instrument; drills, scouting parties 
in the city to spy out what we’d like to do to 
make it better; the best speakers in the city and 
State, to tell us just what sort of a pie the politi- 
cians cook for us each year; picnics and camp- 
ing, to learn how much fun there is out under 
the sky, and how a man can jolly along without 
much but a blanket and a frying pan, and have 
the time of his life; and each year some great 
celebration the young citizens would themselves 
manage that would really mean things — all 
these ideas, our history, our future, — do you get 
this, young people? Would it be great? Or am 
I just dreaming?” 

They caught the bigness of his idea and re- 
sponded as heartily as boys and girls always will 
when they are enlisted. 

Jim Barney and his followers were there in 
force, because it was necessary for them to be 


STANDS THE TEST 


53 


in touch with all that was going on. They saw, 
or their leader did, that this Good Citizens’ 
Club meant the end of their influence and of 
his rule. 

“Of course you don’t mean girls,” Jim 
drawled in a slow, confident tone. 

“Can girls be loyal to the city? Isn’t your 
mother as good a citizen as your father?” 

It was an unfortunate question. Jim’s mother 
had run off with a man his father despised; 
while the father, a successful saloon-keeper, and 
good to Jim according to his light, was the boy’s 
idol. 

“You bet she ain’t. Women and girls don’t 
count in politics.” 

The girls scowled, some boys hissed, but too 
many cheered. 

“ If they don’t count, America is a lie,” Mr. 
Streeter said when the noise had ceased. “Yet 
even that aspect of the case is futile. The 
amendment to enfranchise the women of Wash- 
ington will surely carry; your mothers and sis- 
ters will be citizens whether you like it or not. 
What will you do about it?” 

Cheering and laughing, good*natured jeers 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


54 

and one or two faint hisses followed. But the 
majority were interested, and an organization 
on Mr. Streeter’s basis followed, with Reginald 
Steele and Cicero Jones as president and vice- 
president, Bess Carter secretary, and Billy treas- 
urer. As these four were of the strongest op- 
posers of Jim Barney, it was not surprising that 
he rose and rather boisterously led his gang out. 

Mr. Streeter did not quite understand, but 
said rivalry was sometimes wholesome, and per- 
haps Mr. Barney would organize something 
himself. 

“You may think it strange that I come with 
this proposition so near the end of the school 
year. I wonder if you will like my further 
plans? How do you think we can make this 
most effective? I had thought we could have 
every member of this club, and those that are 
forming in the other schools, start a little feeder 
in his own neighborhood. The Scouts are al- 
ready enthusiastic. And my biggest notion of 
all is to have a band in each club; and when 
these bands are studying and playing about the 
city, we’ll select the very best of them, and the 
ten best citizens, — that is, those who, on the vote 


STANDS THE TEST 


55 


of all the rest have done most in this work, — and 
we’ll go abroad with them. East, all over our 
own States, and then to Europe. Well, it’s a 
pretty big jump, that is; I won’t propose Mars 
till next time.” 

“But that would take a heap of money; we 
couldn’t — ” The “doubting Thomas” hesi- 
tated and subsided. 

“ There is a city on this coast where they are 
doing just that thing. And when, after a tour 
of six months, those thirty boys came home, hav- 
ing earned their way by their splendid music, 
and won the applause and good will of all the 
countries they visited, what do you suppose their 
own city did? Gave them the freedom of the 
city, made one of them mayor of the town for 
a week, and the entire city feted them.” 

“Well, what do you think of that?” one as- 
tonished person. upspoke in meeting. 

“That may be far away, but I have one idea 
coming that isn’t, — a flag for the city. Do you 
like that idea? Would it be a good thing for a 
city to have its own banner floating with the 
Stars and Stripes on every school house, shop, 
ship, and home?” 


56 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“Has any other city a flag?” 

“Not that I know of.” 

“Gee! Then we’ll be the first! Let’s have 
it!” 

They cheered this to the satisfaction of even 
Mr. Streeter. 

“ I shall offer a prize of fifty dollars for the 
best design, to be competed for by the members 
of the Good Citizens’ Clubs. The Chamber of 
Commerce likes the idea, and will add another 
fifty. We’ll begin our annual historic pageants 
this year, in September, and award the prize 
then. How does that strike you? ” 

It struck them happily, and they despatched 
a few more details of the organization, arranged 
for the meeting hour, and for immediate coop- 
eration with the playground campaign, — for 
.that was good citizens’ work, — and adjourned. 

Billy had to remain with Bess after the rest 
to receive, and receipt for, the money paid in 
for dues. A teacher gave them a drawer in one 
of the desks in the library, and Billy had a key 
to it. On passing out of the larger room he had 
managed to sign to Erminie, who had attended 
the meeting, to wait for him. He and Bess fin- 


STANDS THE TEST 


57 


ished their work together, Billy remaining on 
some invented pretext till after she had gone; 
though he had to follow her immediately, for 
the teacher was anxious to lock up and get away. 

Very casually, Billy thought, he sauntered 
along to where Erminie was standing, looking 
nowhere in particular as he came up, and, un- 
der pretence of showing her his club accounts, 
handed her a folded paper. But even a pair of 
thoughtless boys passing read his beaming face ; 
and a teacher going by smiled in spite of him- 
self; smiled, and scowled at Erminie without 
knowing it. 

She caught the look, read her own meaning 
into it, and turned away with a casual, “ Thank 
you, Billy,” that chilled him as no wind ever 
had. He little dreamed she was saving him at 
her own expense, as she did again a moment 
later, when' the teacher repassed with Barney 
by his side, and she gave the bully the brilliant 
smile Billy had expected for his own. 

“ I did n’t mean you should kiss him with your 
eyes,” Billy growled, jealousy flaming so ludi- 
crously in his face that Erminie laughed when 
she would better have b^en serious. 


58 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“Don’t be foolish, Billy; you told me to 
square with him. Sh — ! Here they come 
again,” she added, and with a hasty good-bye 
left Billy to gloom all the way home about that 
smile. 

Of course he himself had advised the recog- 
nition, but not like that. Oh, that smile! 

He arrived at home to hear that his dear little 
comrade of earlier days. May Nell Smith, had 
been hurt and was coming home. 


CHAPTER IV 


ERMINIE THE UNCERTAIN 
FEW days later May Nell came, and Billy 



1 went to see her. On the way, and while 
waiting in the parlor of her imposing home, he 
recalled the April evening she had come into 
Vina on the refugee train from San Francisco, a 
homeless waif. Driven right into his arms he 
believed, by the catastrophe, he had led her to 
his mother’s door ; and the little girl had walked 
into their hearts, never to be forgotten. 

Yet now she seemed remote, — very young, 
and out of Billy’s life, if not out of memory. 
He had not seen her since they separated after 
the summer together at Lallula; and that was 
far away, a part of another life. 

May Nell had never been robust since the ter- 
rifying days and nights of the great fire; and her 
parents sent her to a girls’ school in a neighbor- 
ing town, where health was the first consider- 
ation. 


59 


6o BILLY TO-MORROW 


The maid came interrupting his memories, 
and he followed her. 

“Come up, Billy!” May Nell called in the 
well remembered melodious voice. 

He was unprepared for the change in her. 
She had been only slightly hurt in the foot in an 
automobile accident, and now showed almost 
no ill effects from it. She seemed no older, no 
larger, yet different, in a way that Billy could 
not explain to himself. As she rose impulsively 
to greet him, leaning gracefully on her cane, he 
felt in full force once more her charm, her oth- 
erworldliness. 

Her face had rounded and taken on richer 
tints; and the gold of her hair and the blue of 
her eyes were almost ethereal. She was like a 
beautiful dream, or like some little princess of 
bygone years stepped from the canvas of an old 
master. 

“ Oh, Billy, Billy! How good it is to see you ! 
And how fine of you to come this first day I ’m 
at home.” 

Billy was only half at ease. He felt old and 
rude, and in some odd way not good enough to 
touch her delicate hand, to help her reseat her- 


STANDS THE TEST 


6i 


self. “ I had to come, you know.” And though 
he smiled he remembered that he had wished he 
were going to see Erminie instead. 

Yet now that he was here he felt widely sep- 
arated from Erminie. A fancy struck into his 
mind on the instant between sentences : Erminie 
was the bright red rose, quickly blooming and 
quickly fading, that grows luxuriantly in plain 
view in the valley; May Nell was a rare and 
delicate yet unwithering orchid that hides on 
the far mountain side. 

“ Mama says I am not to return to school till 
the autumn semester opens.” 

Again the daintiness, the foreign flavor that 
attached to all she said or did came with the 
French “mama.” 

“That’s dandy!” and he gave her a boyish 
scrutiny. “You’re different, older someway; 
but you’re — just as little.” A teasing mischief 
danced in his eyes. 

“I am older, Billy. Did you think I would 
always stay a little girl?” 

“Thirteen isn’t very old.” 

“It’s only three years younger than sixteen.” 

“ I ’m much more than sixteen,” he objected, 


62 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


and thought with dismay of Erminie. Could she 
feel as much beyond him in age as he felt be- 
yond May Nell? 

“Well, no matter, Billy. You look twenty. 
But I ’ll challenge you on the score of studies, 
that is, if — if you’ll cut out mathematics,” she 
added in a mock-plaintive tone. 

“Mathematics is — are? — 'the whole busi- 
ness,” he swaggered; and thus they chaffed 
themselves back to childhood standing again, 
and talked on of many matters, each telling of 
life during the separation. 

She was almost well, would soon be ready to 
join in their sports again. Going home, Billy 
thought over his changed future. The gay days 
were coming when May Nell and his cousins. 
Hector, Hugh, and little Miss Snow, as they 
called their little sister, would all go chugging 
around the Sound among the beautiful Thou- 
sand Islands, or startle the silences of night and 
day at lovely Lallula. 

But he would not be there. He would be 
drudging at some sort of hard work; making a 
beginning in his long, hurrying climb toward an 
income that would warrant him in taking Er- 


STANDS THE TEST 


63 

minie to a home of their own. Suddenly the 
future looked bigger and darker, and he men- 
tally drew back from it; but instantly chid him- 
self for a coward. 

He need not. He was only a boy. How was 
he to know that he was not yet able to endure 
long mental strain; that this depression was the 
inevitable reaction from exciting days, and 
nights with little or no sleep? 

On his way he met Bess Carter. 

“Hello, Queen of Sheba!” he called as she 
was passing him, her head up, eyes unheeding. 

“Oh! Billy! I’m glad you spoke. We’re 
so busy I ’m totally absorbed and don’t have time 
to see my friends.” 

“ Evidently not. What is it? Politics?” 

“Yes. Though it doesn’t seem like that. I 
thought politics was something tremendous and 
difficult and — rather bad. But since mother 
says women are to be enfranchised and I must 
learn things, and since I heard Mr. Streeter, it 
really appears merely a sort of housekeeping for 
the city, or State, or whatever; easy, but lots of 
work.” 

“When you’ve heard more from Mr. Streeter 


64 BILLY TO-MORROW 

you’ll see that any kind of housekeeping that’s 
worth while isn’t so easy; though it’s simpler 
when all the people have a pride in it.” 

“Yes. Do you know, Billy, I’d never have 
been allured by it if he had n’t said that one who 
forgot or abused his city was the same as one 
who forgot home or demolished the furniture.” 
Bess retained her fondness for long words. 

“That was rather striking.” 

“And now I’m in — deep in the girls’ reform 
party; and we are going to participate in the 
Progressives’ playground rally to-night. Will 
you be there?” 

“Sure. But what will the girls do?” 

“We wish to address the meeting. It’s espe- 
cially to bring about better conditions on the 
playground ; and the student body will take some 
part there if Hector is president.” 

“Yes.” 

“You know the boys of the Fifth Avenue 
High have an unconscionable name there.” 

“Yes; and it’s only a few that have given it 
that reputation. You’re going some for girls. 
How did you get the chance to butt in on the 
rally?” 


STANDS THE TEST 


65 

“Oh, Billy, doesn’t the school and the play- 
ground belong to girls as well as to boys? Have 
not we a right to be heard? ” 

“ Sure. But how is it the boys let you? ” 

“ Hector told the managers of the meeting 
that if they wanted him to speak they’d have to 
let us in too.” 

“Good. I ’ll be there.” 

“And — Billy — ” Her hesitation was un- 
precedented. 

Billy’s eyes questioned. 

“It’s about the — Erminie Fisher.” 

“ Well? ” This time the eyes warned. 

“They’re talking about her — the girls don’t 
like her.” 

“Anything else?” There was a steel-like 
quality in his voice that Bess Carter had never 
suspected. 

“ Yes. She ’s working for Jim Barney’s ticket, 
and you must make her — only you can — make 
her stop, or Hector won’t win.” She was in- 
tensely in earnest now, all her loyalty to Billy 
fighting for him. “ Billy! That girl is no good 
friend to you, and she ’ll spoil everything if you 
don’t stop her.” 


66 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“I think you’re mistaken,” he said, after a 
silence that puzzled and chilled her. 

“ She won’t join the Girls’ Branch of the Pro- 
gressives, nor register. And she says if Hector 
Price is elected he will turn the student body 
into a kindergarten; at least that’s what Walter 
Buckman said she said.” She pumped out the 
words breathily. 

“Any more slams on her?” 

“ Oh, Billy, I ’m no tattler. It is n’t what they 
say; it’s the looks and sniggers that say more 
than words. No one would dare to tell me any- 
thing anyway; they know I ’m your friend, Billy, 
your California friend.” 

He caught the emotion in her voice, knew that 
in all the world he had not a more devoted 
friend, a more fearless champion than Bess Car- 
ter. “You’re to the good, Bess. I shall try to 
deserve your kindness.” He lifted his cap and 
passed on, leaving her troubled and mystified. 

He found his mother busy over her window 
plants. After an anxious inquiry as to dinner, 
which settled the fact that he would have to wait 
ten minutes, he stood watching her in such an un- 
usual silence that she noticed it and rallied him. 


STANDS THE TEST 


67 


“What’s happening in Calcutta, Billy?” 

“Not in Calcutta; right here. What are you 
killing all those little babies for?” 

Mrs, Bennett straightened up and looked at 
him, startled, “ It does seem almost like that, 
doesn’t it? But if I don’t pinch these buds the 
plants will be less thrifty, perhaps die.” 

“Why?” 

“It’s warm here in this room, and the plant 
has hurried to put out buds before the root has 
struck deep enough. It would be unwise to let 
it come to flower now,” 

“Doesn’t Nature know best how to do 
things?” 

“Not always. Nature is very wasteful. Be- 
sides, I ’ve robbed these plants of Nature’s care, 
taken them into artificial conditions; so I must 
stand in place of Nature to them.” 

“ Suppose the plant gets discouraged and won’t 
bloom at all?” 

“ It won’t do that; blooming is the law of its 
life.” 

He was silent a moment before asking, “ I 
wonder if that is true in — in other ways — that 
about blooming too soon?” 


68 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“Yes, true of all Nature. Fruit grown or 
gathered prematurely is always poor, tasteless; 
still more important, the seeds produce poorer 
stock.” 

“ I don’t quite understand. I thought young 
flowers were finest. Didn’t you say pansies 
wouldn’t have fine blooms the second or third 
year?” 

“Yes. That is because naturally the pansy is 
an annual. Only in warm climates does it live 
through the winter; when it does, the second 
season is merely a prolonged old age.” 

“How about animal life?” 

“The law is the same. In hot climates where 
boys and girls marry early the races are not 
strong, dominant. And in our own latitude the 
children of well-grown, well-trained men and 
women are stronger mentally and physically 
than those whose parents marry in their teens.” 

Billy winced. “I should think that — that 
— well, when boys and girls are old enough to 
care for each other that would mean they were 
old enough to marry.” 

“ In the dawn of the race when men were no 
wiser than the plants, when they lived naturally. 


STANDS THE TEST 69 

it did mean that. But as the race unfolds and we 
make artificial conditions, man sees more fully 
perhaps the meaning of God’s command to him 
to have dominion over every thing on the earth. 
Man’s growing wisdom is in charge over Nature 
to mould her material forms to higher, ever 
higher perfection.” 

“Then why is it that kids do marry? Why 
do they want to before they ought?” 

“ Why do you wish to eat before you are really 
hungry? Why do you wish to run, leap, dance, 
be ever on the move, whether you have conscious 
need for motion or not? Why does a baby try 
to walk before its legs will bear it?” 

Billy grinned. “You’re too deep for me, 
marms.” 

“Because Nature is often blind. To pre- 
serve the race is her first business. She sacrifices 
the one to the welfare of the many. Man, exer- 
cising the power God gave him, sees that only as 
each one comes to his best, will he contribute to 
the race the best possible stock. Therefore our 
wisest thinkers say that all should wait till at 
least well in the twenties before marriage.” 

Billy was thoughtful for a minute. “What of 


70 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


the fellow who likes a girl so well that he can’t 
keep — well, keep from thinking of her?” He 
knew very well that his mother cast a quick look 
at him, but he did not meet her eye, and she went 
quietly on with her employment of snipping 
and digging. 

“That is a very deep question, one to which 
you should give much study. There are books 
prepared especially to answer such questions. 
For ages man has been developing unevenly. 
The truth is that men and women are nine-tenths 
alike; that is, human — eating, drinking, suffer- 
ing, joying, loving each other and mankind 
alike, and dying alike. Only in about one-tenth 
of their natures are they different, this being the 
difference of sex.” 

“Gee! That seems strange.” 

“But is it? Look at Bess Carter. She has 
been reared most wisely. Is she not nearly as 
much of an athlete as you are? What is there 
that you can do that she cannot?” 

Billy scowled. He remembered uncomfort- 
ably a day when a little child had fallen into the 
edge of the lake, and Bess had outrun him and 
rescued her just as he was arriving. Also he was 


STANDS THE TEST 71 

more uncertain than he liked as to their relative 
percentage for the year. 

“ She ’s an exception,” he evaded. 

“So are you. Few boys of your age are as 
well developed. Yet you could not endure, ex- 
cept for a momentary spurt, perhaps, what, with 
no accident or illness you will be able to endure 
at twenty-three. Mentally the difference will 
be nearly the same.” 

“Why do people marry so young, then?” 

“ For many reasons. Children are not taught 
these things as they should be taught. Boys who 
leave school early and earn for themselves usu- 
ally have no aim beyond mere physical satisfac- 
tion, no large ideals to follow, and become a 
prey to natural emotions they yield to but do not 
understand.” 

“How about the others — and girls?” 

“The young man who takes a longer school 
course or a profession must put his whole effort 
to succeeding in that. He cannot take the bur- 
den of a family life, and he has his work, sports, 
various matters to occupy his attention, and all 
his forces combine to the making of his higher 
success. It is about the same with girls.” 


72 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“But why shouldn’t they love each other, be 
engaged and wait?” 

He thought it a long time before she 
answered. When at last she turned and looked 
deep in his eyes her voice took on the tender 
tone he knew, and her words were grave. 
“Billy, think back to the time when you were a 
little boy and the apples, full grown and glori- 
ously tinted but hard as wood, tempted you from 
their leafy nests. What would have happened 
if you had fondled and pinched each one?” 

Billy’s eyes darkened. “I — I — see.” 

“Would it have been the fault of the apple if 
it had become later a dented, spotted thing with 
decay setting in before it had really ripened?” 

“No.” He writhed inwardly at the conclu- 
sions forced upon him. 

“ Remember, Billy, every girl is like an apple 
slowly ripening toward womanhood.” 

The room was very still, and they stood to- 
gether, Billy’s arm close about her waist, looking 
out upon the distant shimmering lake. At 
length she lifted her head suddenly and spoke 
with a singular passion. 

“My boy, the love relation between a man and 


STANDS THE TEST 


73 


a woman is the holiest one on earth. It may be- 
gin in passion, but if true, it ends in a constant 
devotion that opens the door of heaven. Since 
this is God’s way of keeping his race going it is 
blasphemy to speak or even think coarsely of it, 
or to enter upon it except devoutly. If there is 
one relation in life that should be given prepara- 
tion, almost I would say that should be entered 
upon with prayer and fasting, it is that by which 
you shall become responsible for the welfare of 
future beings, your children.” 

She was trembling, and Billy knew now that 
she understood him; that even if she did not 
know the one he loved, she knew the fact. He 
could not deceive her, nor did he wish it. He 
felt relieved that she knew, though he could not 
bring himself to speak of it. He thought it was 
because he must not let any one intrude on Er- 
minie’s privacy, but the reason lay deeper than 
that, deeper than he could then know. 

The dinner was brought in. He had forgot- 
ten his hurry; but now it returned, and he 
hastened his meal and excused himself to go to 
the rally. 

He went round by Erminie’s home. He 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


74 

wished to ask her of the situation Bess had de- 
scribed. He was sure she could clear up every- 
thing that troubled him, sure she could defend 
her course no matter how it might look to 
others. Perhaps she really disbelieved in poli- 
tics for girls ; if so, she had a right to her opinion. 

Yet why had she openly assisted the school 
bully? That was as much a political move as 
the other, and not so frank; more, it was exceed- 
ingly unpopular. She could not be associated 
with Jim in any matter, and hold the good-will 
of the best girls in school. 

A hot wave swept over him. Whatever she 
did, he must stand by her now, make life for her 
better, not worse. Yet how could he do it? 
Open interference between her and Barney 
would be disastrous. 

Still questioning anxiously of himself he rang 
the bell; once, twice, and a third time. No one 
answered, and after a wait and another ring he 
went back to the playground, and found a noisy, 
chaotic scene. 

Redtop was manager. He had planned a 
rally in imitation of the campaign meetings of 
real politics. There would be speeches, and the 


STANDS THE TEST 


75 


candidates for the playground officers would be 
presented. There could be no rules, of course, 
as if in a room, but three boys were appointed to 
keep order, Billy being one. And everybody 
was welcome. 

Apparently the cityful had arrived before 
Billy. As he approached, Redtop, perspiring 
and anxious, called, “Billy Next Week, come 
on! Get busy! Hold down those kids, will 
you? This meeting’s got a football game 
skinned silly on noise.” 

“ All right,” Billy responded cheerfully. 
“Shall I scare ’em or run ’em in?” 

“ Oh, anything. Cop ’em or duck ’em. Here ! 
Take this.” He pinned a badge of authority on 
Billy’s coat. 

Billy started through the wriggling, shifting 
mass of boys of many nationalities from fair- 
faced Swede to swarthy Italian and garrulous 
Irish boy, with quiet, squat Japanese fringing 
the edges. 

“The cop’s coming!” ran derisively from lip 
to lip along the crowd, which curved back at 
his approach, only to close in behind him with 
more and more noise. 


76 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“Say! Fellers!” Billy wheeled and called 
to the nearest, “What’s the matter of helping 
here and getting the taffy a little later?” 

“ Sure, Mike,” cried some. And others asked, 
“Where’s the taffy?” 

Billy laughed and touched his lip. “You’ll 
get as much as I will.” 

“What’s that?” 

“The fun. See? Now hike, and bring those 
benches over here.” He waved his doubled fist 
at them as if it were a club ; and thirty or more 
hurried off laughing, and began to labor with 
the park benches which they set in semi-circular 
rows on the grass around a central bench be- 
tween two torches, that was the speakers’ stand. 

Coming on Sis Jones a moment later, Billy 
asked him to look after the bench brigade, which 
he did, crying out to Billy when he passed 
again, “Gee! This is work! Where’s the 
reward?” 

“Where mine is,” Billy jeered. “ Look at the 
girls; they’re doing half of the work.” He 
nodded to a dozen or more struggling by with 
the heavy seats, one bending alone under the 
weight of a short bench, and refusing help. 


STANDS THE TEST 77 

“Look at the strong Miss Kid!” shouted a 
small boy. 

“The mighty suffragette I ” another fleered. 

The girls only laughed, straightened a little, 
and tugged on. 

Some of the Kid’s followers caught Sis Jones, 
stripped off his coat, tied a girl’s hat on him 
with a scarf, threw a girl’s wrap over him, 
pulled off his shoes and socks, and dragged him 
forward into the circle of light, only to be them- 
selves caught and lashed to trees farther back. 

Billy and his helpers rushed about frantically. 
Redtop mounted his bench platform and tried 
to call the meeting to order; but the uproar in- 
creased, and after a moment of vain gesticulat- 
ing for quiet he stepped down amid wildest 
cheers. 

Two large boys swung a little negro back and 
forth, head down, commanding him to sing. 
Too frightened to emit a sound he finally wrig- 
gled away from them and fled like a rabbit, with 
a dozen yelling buffoons after him. 

A third group crowned a tiny girl with ever- 
green, lifted her to their close-touching shoul- 
ders, and paraded with her around the open 


78 BILLY TO-MORROW 

space, shouting, “Madam President!” “I rise 
to a point of order!” “I have the floor — ” 
“No, no! It’s the ground!” and a lot more 
nonsense. 

The pranks went on while those in charge 
conferred apart upon the question of handling 
the mob, each in turn bolstering the courage of 
the rest. 

“ Gee whiz ! I did n’t expect any of the real 
thing — voters and mamas,” Redtop panted as 
he lunged back after his inauspicious beginning. 
“ What are we to do? ” 

“ If we fizzle out, the girls will never stop 
guying us,” Sis Jones groaned; “they toted 
almost as many benches as we did.” 

“Get a girl to start the meeting; they’re keen 
on it, and maybe the fellows would n’t give it to 
a girl so — so in the neck.” 

“ Where ’s Hec? What does he say? ” 

“ I say we ’ve got to beat that crowd into re- 
spect, or not only the Progressives will lose their 
election, but we’ll lose ours.” 

“ But this is no meeting for the student body,” 
Redtop urged. 

“No. But Barney and Buckman and their 


STANDS THE TEST 


79 


crowd know that nearly every one who will vote 
for me is mixed up in this playground fight on 
the side of the Progressives. The Good Citi- 
zens’ Club stands for the Progressives too.” 

“You go speak to them now, Hec,” Redtop 
urged. 

“No, he can’t,” Billy objected. “He’s the 
principal speaker of the evening; he must be 
introduced properly.” 

Behind them stood Bess Carter bursting with 
indignation. “You boys haven’t the spunk of a 
flea!” she taunted, and before they could reply 
she was standing on the bench gazing fearlessly 
but silently around on the mob. Her advent, so 
sudden and unheralded, touched the most quiet- 
ing element of a crowd, its curiosity. 

Tall, erect, her dark eyes flashing in the light 
of the torches, her beauty enhanced by her air of 
refinement and womanliness, — her power was 
felt by every little hoodlum there as keenly as by 
the older people. 

“ Gee! The Queen of Sheba ’ll do the trick! ” 
Billy ejaculated softly. 

For what seemed to be minutes she stood, mo- 
tionless except for her quick-glancing eyes. 


8o 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


calmly waiting for perfect silence. It came at 
length, and she bowed gracefully and smiled as 
if she had expected nothing else. 

“Ladies and gentlemen and fellow students: 
I did not mount this rostrum to make a speech, 
only to announce that the meeting is about to 
begin, and that we shall expect quiet. For really 
good Americans this is an unnecessary request. 
For any others who may possibly be here we 
have behind us real American policemen who 
will take charge of them.” 

She bowed and in a moment was back among 
the anxious group again, while the audience 
clapped and roared, and the high school boys 
shouted “Hooray for the Queen!” “Bully for 
her!” and other elegant expressions that never- 
theless held only admiration. 

“ Bess! What did you say that for? We have 
no police — ” 

“Not now, but we’re going to! I never saw 
such barbarians ! I ’m going to telephone for 
the police ! ” Before any could stop her she was 
flying across the street to find a telephone. 

Taking advantage of the lull that followed 
her speech, Redtop mounted the bench and in 


STANDS THE TEST 


8i 


the briefest way announced the programme and 
introduced the first speaker, who was Reginald 
Steele. Hector was to follow him, and Billy 
was to be called on for an impromptu speech, 
when he would introduce one or two of the girls. 

But this programme was never carried out. 
Before Reginald got to his “ secondly,” two boys 
sprang at the torches and extinguished them; 
half a dozen bunches of firecrackers began to 
explode in different localities; and a scream 
from the wading pool at the same moment com- 
pleted the panic. 

The long twilight had faded and the scattered 
park lamps shed only faint gleams. 

“There’s no danger! Every one go home 
quietly!” shouted one man. And another 
called, “The little chap that screamed fell into 
the wading pool. He isn’t hurt, and has gone 
home.” 

In five minutes the playground was deserted 
and silent under the quiet stars. Billy remained 
to the last, searching in vain for Erminie. He 
had seen her there, and expected her to wait for 
him. On a sudden impulse he decided to go 
across to her home. 


82 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


As he neared the house he saw her standing 
under the porch light with Jim Barney. Her 
face was in the shadow, and he could not hear 
their words; but he knew from their low, tense 
tones and Jim’s eager, bending attitude, that 
their conversation was important. 

Billy watched them an instant, dazed and un- 
certain, yet tormented by the tender pleading in 
an occasional tone that floated out to him in Er- 
minie’s voice. But eavesdropping Billy de- 
spised; and as soon as he could recover himself 
he turned away, his disappointment at the utter 
failure of the meeting pushed to insignificance 
by this puzzling, sinister, covert situation that 
included both Erminie and Jim. Billy was 
utterly perplexed. What could she mean? 

Slowly, his feet weighing tons, he plodded 
home, and entered to find the telephone ringing. 

He hurried to take down the receiver that the 
household might not be disturbed. “Who is 
it?” 

“ Erminie,” came back over the wire. “ Oh, 
Billy, I’m so glad to get you!” 

“Yes?” Billy could not keep the coldness 
out of his voice. He was hearing again the ten- 


STANDS THE TEST 83 

der eagerness in her tone as the Kid bent over 
her twenty minutes before. 

“ Oh, I don’t wonder you speak in that Alaska 
voice, Billy; but you don’t know everything. 
Billy, dear, won’t you trust me? Just for a few 
days?” 

“I — I’d like to,” he sent back huskily over 
the wire. Even at that distance he could feel 
her power over him, hear the caress in each word. 

“You may, Billy. And you won’t be sorry. 
Good-night.” 

Without another word she “hung up,” leav- 
ing Billy a trifle comforted but more perplexed 
than ever. 


CHAPTER V 


ERMINIE FUMBLES THE GAME 
WO weeks later came the annual Junior 



A picnic. It was a variation this year in 
being set for evening. They had chartered a 
steamer and were to stop at one of the wildest 
points on A-mo-te Island, 

There was merely a little clearing, with one 
or two rustic pavilions for shelter against rain, 
and the dancing platform. This last was rated 
the best out-of-doors dancing floor anywhere 
around the city or its suburbs, and was corres- 
pondingly popular with young people. 

Billy started off in fine spirits with a basket 
his mother had prepared, and a proud feeling 
that he would not be ashamed to open it in the 
presence of any girl. He had begged Erminie to 
let him bring the luncheon for the two of them ; 
and when he met her as agreed at the trolley line 
transfer point, care-free, erect and strong, his 
eyes shining with anticipation, it was little 


84 


BILLY TO-MORROW 85 

wonder that he saw an answering look of pleas- 
ure and pride in her eyes. He was a young man 
any girl might feel it a privilege to know; bet- 
ter still, older and deeper-seeing ones, mothers, 
would turn to observe him and wish their own 
sons might be like him, 

“On time, Erminie!” he greeted gayly as he 
helped her from the car almost before it came 
to a stop. “ Good girl ! ” 

“Isn’t it perfect?” She met his frank gaze 
cordially. “Just warm enough, and the moon is 
full.” 

The week had been a hard one for her, . She 
had struggled to hold the good-will of Jim Bar- 
ney without allowing him the familiarities he 
had once enjoyed; familiarities she would allow 
no boy after knowing Billy. She was anxious 
that Billyls side in both school and playground 
politics should win, but she knew the only way 
she could help him was to remain good friends 
with Jim. 

She used her utmost subtlety to exact from 
him a pledge of civility toward Billy and Hec- 
tor, and found this ■ was the hardest bit of 
management she had ever undertaken. The Kid 


86 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


was as keen as she was, and had a half woman- 
ish intuition that matched her own. And 
Erminie could no longer juggle with the truth 
as formerly; it hurt her. When taxed with un- 
due interest in Billy, her denials did not ring 
true; and her witty sallies ridiculing Jim were 
half-hearted. Had he been less in love, or Er- 
minie less than altogether beautiful and charm- 
ing, she would have made no impression. 

Billy had looked forward to this day as one 
of reckoning. With this in view he had insisted 
that Erminie go to the picnic with him openly. 
“Don’t you frame up to go with Jim,” he had 
whispered days before, in a moment of waiting 
in the rain for a car at the school corner; “I 
won’t stand for it this time; I’ve things to say 
to you.” 

“Oh! It’s good to be with you once more, 
just us two,” she said, as they went aboard, and 
forward to the very peak of the bow of the 
steamer. 

But there was too much hilarity for any two, 
however absorbed, to remain unnoticed. 

“Oh, here you are, Fishie!” one jolly girl 
shotited, and bore down on them, dragging in 


STANDS THE TEST 87 

her train others with boys following. “We don’t 
need spoons at this picnic! Come on, you — the 
boys are going to get the band to play so we can 
dance.” She pulled Erminie to her feet; and 
shortly two or three dozen couple were whirling 
around on the crowded deck. 

Erminie and Billy took a turn or two and 
dropped out, preferring to wait for the ampler 
room and smoother floor of the pavilion. Yet 
when they sought their places forward again, 
and the music and preoccupation of the dancers 
isolated them almost as much as walls would 
have done, neither of them could speak of what 
was uppermost in both minds. The hour and 
the surroundings were not propitious. 

Billy fretted inwardly. There was much to 
say. She must know all his plans; all he had 
thought and dreamed since that evening — was 
it only a few days ago? — in the park, that even- 
ing that had changed all his life. Still these 
were serious matters, even sacred. He could not 
bring himself to mention them here, where un- 
sympathetic eyes might read his emotions in his 
face; he was not an adept at hiding them as 
Erminie was. 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


When the hour’s trip was nearly over she gave 
him a quick nudge with her arm, “ There ’s 
Jim!” She looked down the stairway. 

“Where? I thought you said he wasn’t 
coming.” 

“ So I did. He said he had work to do.” 
“Work!” Billy’s tone held a fine scorn. “Did 
you think any one would stay away for that? I 
would n’t. I ’ve worked in our garden till nearly 
ten o’clock some of the nights this week, so I 
might feel free for to-day. I didn’t know till 
yesterday it was changed to an evening affair.” 

But Erminie was not heeding. “Billy, you 
must not let Jim see — ” 

“ J im be hanged ! Y ou ’ve put me off for days 
with that plea. I ’m not afraid of the Kid, I — ” 
“Oh, Billy! Won’t you listen — ” 

“Not to one word. I brought you to this pic- 
nic; I have the lunch, and you ’re going to sit it 
out with me while we eat, and dance with me, 
and go home — ” 

While he spoke Jim and Walter Buckman 
came up from the lower deck, in animated dis- 
cussion of some matter that pleased them both. 
The dancers had stopped, and nearly all were 


STANDS THE TEST 89 

standing in groups at the rail, watching the 
shore come nearer as the puffing craft ap- 
proached the landing. 

“Oh, you Fishie!” Jim sang out on seeing 
her. “You’re going to feed with Buck and me; 
we’ve got the grub and — ” 

Billy rose, and every vestige of his light good 
humor faded; was replaced by a sternness Jim 
had never seen. “Miss Fisher has consented to 
be my partner for the evening; and I also have 
the — the grub.” Erminie herself could not have 
edged a sarcasm with finer scorn than Billy 
threw into his last word. 

Jim eyed him in surprise for a second, then 
broke out in a loud voice, “Well, Miss Fisher 
belongs to — ” His eyes burned red and his 
hands clenched involuntarily. 

His companion though not as bright was more 
prudent than Jim; also he was selfish; he wanted 
the presidency, and knew that open hostility in 
any direction endangered his chances. “ Come 
off. Kid! You always kick in for fair play.” 
And ingratiatingly bowing to Erminie, “ Prob- 
ably Miss Fisher was engaged to Mr. Bennett 
first.” 


90 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“Mr. Bennett nothing! By jiminyl — ” 

But Erminie interrupted glibly. “I’ve ex- 
pected to come to this picnic with Billy ever 
since I knew there was to be one.” 

“But I told you — ” 

She laughed nervously. “Jim Barney, 
you’ve told me a good many things lately; but 
if you are Boss of the Fifth Avenue High you’re 
not my boss.” 

The words were not out of her mouth before 
she knew that all of her plot and subterfuge of 
the past weeks was lost. Daily her repugnance 
to Jim and his methods had been growing. She 
had tolerated, wheedled him, only that it might 
be easier for Billy till the end of the term. 
Now, with that day only two weeks off, she had 
in a moment undone all she had gained. 

Yet even in that instant of dismay she was 
filled with relief. She need dissemble no more. 
She could be straight with Billy and fight Jim 
in the open. She would tell Bess Carter a little 
— what she needed to tell, join the Progressives, 
and be with those she believed were doing well. 

Jim was angry through and through, and too 
astonished to speak immediately; and in the 


STANDS THE TEST 


91 

moment of his hesitancy Walter Euckman led 
him away. 

“Billy! Billy!” Erminie whispered as she 
started up. “You don’t know what an awful 
thing I ’ve done!” 

“You’ve done what I wished you would do 
long ago, and I ’ll stand for whatever happens.” 
A proud light shone in his eye that she saw oth- 
ers besides herself could read. 

“ I ’m going to speak to Bess Carter, — tell her 
that I ’ll work with her. Anyway it will be bet- 
ter if I ’m not seen with you till the Kid’s mad 
cools off.” 

She started across the deck but he detained 
her. “Erminie! Did you promise Jim you’d 
come — come here with — ” 

“No, Billy, he took it for granted. I laughed 
and let it go so, for that was my game then. Bu 
— oh, Billy! I’ve fumbled everything! And 
it’s going to be hard for you when I was trying 
to make it — ” 

“Never mind me. I can fight my own 
battles.” 

The steamer bumped the wharf, lurching the 
standing ones against one another'; and the 


92 


BILLY T 0-M O R R O W 


merry confusion of disembarking drove all se- 
rious matters to cover of silence. The few teach- 
ers, making as little as possible of their duties as 
chaperons, let the young people manage things 
for themselves. 

Dinner was the first consideration ; and as no 
one there knew quite so much about coffee as 
Reginald Steele and Billy, that was their job, 
which occupied them wholly, together with Bess 
Carter, skilled in cookery through use of the tiny 
rock fireplace on the bank of Runa Creek in 
“good old California.” 

Erminie, who had no more idea of ho\v to 
make coffee for three hundred than she had con- 
cerning heavenly ambrosia, hovered close to the 
three, anxious to tell Bess of her change of heart, 
yet more anxious to keep away from Jim Bar- 
ney, and most of all to be near Billy, who meant 
strength and deliverance to her.- 

It was early June and the sun stiU high at 
seven o’clock, when they began - dinner. ' In 
groups of several, with perhaps fifty sitting in 
comfort at the long table in the bark-roofed pa- 
vilion, but oftenest in couples seated apart in the 
many nooks of the srriall clearing, they chattered 


STANDS THE TEST 


93 

and feasted, punctuating the meal with many 
noisy pranks and repeated yells. 

Erminie had expected this to be the moment 
for the quiet talk with Billy. No less had he 
looked forward to it; but the coffee pots were 
an unanticipated tyranny. The making did not 
end the care. The pots were not large enough, 
and more water had to be heated, and a second 
lot made for the thirsty crowd. Billy had barely 
spread his cloth, with Erminie’s help laid out 
the contents of his attractive basket, when the call 
came; and his time till all the rest were satisfied, 
was spent in running back and forth, bolting 
sandwiches on the way. 

And so it happened that dinner was over and 
the fiddlers already calling eager feet, while 
Billy was finishing his meal. 

“ It’s too bad, Billy! You let every one im- 
pose on you.” 

“ No matter. You shall be next. Impose on 
me as much as you like. Is it dancing? ” 

“Nothing doing. You like that as well as 
I do.” 

“Let’s try it then. You can cook up some- 
thing later in the imposition line.” 


94 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


They piled the remnants of the dainty meal 
into the basket and went to the pavilion. 

The music, the perfect evening, all conditions 
were auspicious for restless young creatures who 
inevitably love the motion and harmony of danc- 
ing; and Erminie and Billy enjoyed it more than 
most people do, for they were both musical and 
danced well. 

It was an “informal” to-night, with no pro- 
grammes, each making engagements for but two 
or three dances ahead. Billy wished he did not 
have to dance with any one but Erminie; indeed 
he did sit out most of the dances he did not have 
with her; sat and watched her as she whirled by 
him, scarcely touching the floor, it seemed. In 
the earlier evening he thought he wanted noth- 
ing else but the chance to take her away by her- 
self and talk; but the music and the motion 
intoxicated both of them, and when he held her 
in his arms, in their favorite dance, each move- 
ment so attuned that they felt as one being, he 
wished they might glide on and on, with no 
thought of time. 

But musicians tire if dancers do not; and 
when at last the best dance of all stopped 


STANDS THE TEST 


95 


abruptly he drew her away. The boys had gone 
variously dressed, and as the evening was warm 
many of them, among others Billy, had laid aside 
their coats. 

“You must get your coat, Billy,” Erminie 
warned as they went out of the pavilion. “ Mine 
too. I hung them both on that big cedar. I ’ll 
walk on.” 

When he went to find them he noticed some 
one start hastily away from the tree and slip 
around the other side. He wondered a little 
why any one should be there instead of dancing, 
but he was too absorbed with Erminie to think 
long of anything else; and he ran back to her, 
putting on his coat as he went. 

“ Is it all right?” he asked as he helped her on 
with hers. 

“Yes. Did you think it had changed color?” 

“ I might have taken the wrong one, you 
know.” 

“ Billy, let’s go round by those trees to a place 
I know that’s beautiful, — high above the 
water.” 

“That goes. Is it far? We mustn’t be late 
to the boat.” 


96 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“Only a little way, a block or two. We can 
hear the whistle and run.” 

They followed a smooth trail to a jutting 
point where the underbrush had been cut and a 
rustic seat placed to catch the full beauty of the 
view. 

The warm fragrance of the evening, the puls- 
ing melodies that floated to them softened by 
distance and foliage, the brilliant moon silvering 
the broad lake that splashed softly at their 
feet, the ghostly mountain in the south looming 
into the sky till it seemed a white pathway 
right into heaven itself, — it is little wonder that 
they sat silent, entranced for a moment, each 
thrilled by the spell of the night. 

Erminie was the first to speak. “ Billy, I 
can’t tell you how sorry I am for that break.” 

“ I ’m glad.” 

“It’s something terrible. Jim ’ll make you 
pay for it, — me too, for he isn’t above hurting a 
girl; but I deserve it, and — ” 

Billy turned, quickly moving closer. “ Er- 
minie, you must not worry about this thing any 
longer. He’ll have to reckon with me on more 
than one count. I — hoped to get through the 


STANDS THE TEST 


97 


year without a clash, but I see it’s bound to 
come ; when it does I ’ll get in your score too.” 

“No, no, Billy! You mustn’t fight him! 
He’ll say things, do things that will lose Hector 
the vote because you are his cousin. He’ll — ” 
She broke off suddenly and covered her face 
with her hands. 

Billy reached over and drew one hand down 
in his own. “Erminie!” His voice was ten- 
der. “ I can’t let you worry about this. You 
must tell me just why you are afraid of him, so 
I won’t be doing things in the dark.” 

She lifted her face to the moonlight and 
sighed; and Billy thought she had never been so 
lovely, never so womanly. “ Oh, Billy ! ” There 
was a catch in her voice that made his hand 
close quickly on hers. “ Before I knew you I 
thought it great fun to be engaged to several 
boys at once — Jim was one of them. It was 
like a game, and — ” 

“Yes?” he prompted, and did not know that 
his grasp of her hand loosened. 

“ I ’m ashamed to tell about it now, but I 
thought it all right then. I used to like to see 
how the different ones did it, to see if I could 


98 BILLY TO-MORROW 

catch the difficult ones — ” She stopped again, 
divining Billy’s disapprobation; but when he 
did not speak she continued : 

“ I thought it fun to watch them get jealous 
of each other; to plan to keep them apart or let 
them meet, whichever I was in the mood for at 
the time.” 

“What did your mother say? Did she 
know?” Billy asked after an instant of silence. 

“Oh, yes. I used to tell her a lot. It was 
about all the pleasure she had, — poor ma! Her 
life’s awfully dull. Hearing about my courting 
affairs keeps her sort of waked up.” 

“Did she approve?” 

Erminie laughed at his solemn tone. “ Sure. 
She said it was all good practice; would teach 
me how to land big game when it came my way.” 

Another and a longer silence awed the girl. 
Billy had no idea that the seconds were ticking 
by interminably to her; he was trying to place in 
his mind the Erminie just revealed to him. Her 
measure of life was so different from any he 
knew; her mother so — so impossible as a 
mother, repelled him as a travesty on woman- 


STANDS THE TEST 


99 


hood. Yet recalling her from his few glimpses 
he could not help a feeling of pity mingling 
with his condemnation. 

It was natural, though he could not have told 
why, that he should blame Erminie’s mother, 
her father, any one and every one rather than 
herself. She was near him. She was beautiful, 
— to-night with the calm moon glorifying, ethe- 
realizing her face, more than ever beautiful, — 
and she could not help doing things differently 
from — his sister, for instance, who had been so 
differently reared. 

“Billy! Why don’t you talk to me? Don’t 
look off at nothing as if I were not on earth! 
I’m not like that now. I know you, and — ” 

He took her hand again in the closer clasp, 
and she saw a new look in his face, the look his 
mother saw when they discussed together the 
deep things of life. “Erminie, I have been try- 
ing to see your life as you see it. You know my 
mother is — she talks things over with me — the 
things a chap needs to know before he starts out 
for himself; and I have come to see pretty deep 
into — into the sort of thing that’s between us. 


loo BILLY TO-MORROW 


engagements and that; what it means to one’s 
whole life, what it means to the race.” 

“Why, Billy! Billy! Does your mother talk 
to you of such things?” 

He smiled innocently at her vehemence. 
“Why not? My father is dead; who would tell 
me things if she didn’t?” 

She looked out over the shimmering moon- 
track on the water. “I — I never heard of such 
a thing.” 

“Do you think the Creator makes anything 
bad?” 

“Why — why I suppose not,” she returned, 
wonderingly. 

“ That ’s the point; He does n’t. It ’s only us 
that make wrong out of his creations.” 

A shrill whistle startled them. 

“Billy! It can’t be time to go!” She started 
up. 

“That must be the first whistle.” He looked 
at his watch and calmly pulled her back to the 
seat. “ It ’s only ten; ten-thirty is leaving time. 
If we start ten minutes before we’ll have scads 
of time.” He dropped his watch back into his 
coat pocket. 


STANDS THE TEST 


lOI 


“That’s no place to carry a watch,” she 
chaffed as they readjusted themselves. 

“Yes, it is, for 1 ’m such a kid for dropping it 
when I bend over anything, a fire for instance. 
And then my coat is always off.” 

They talked on, but of other matters. Both 
were relieved at the interruption of the tense 
moment, yet Erminie had a regret she could not 
understand. More than ever Billy attracted her 
because of his larger, deeper knowledge. He 
knew the forbidden things, things she only 
whispered about, yet on his lips they had a dig- 
nity, a purity unbounded. He never made silly 
jokes where reverence was due, yet never went 
out of his way to avoid anything that came in 
the natural course of conversation. He was the 
only one she knew who did this ; and she wished 
she, too, might have such an open mind toward 
life. 

“Billy! The music has stopped!” She rose 
hastily and started down the path. 

“Oh, I guess it’s only the wait between 
dances.” But he was suddenly conscious that it 
had been long, and hurried after her. 

They turned the point where the pavilion 


102 BILLY TO-MORROW 


came to view to see it looming dark and deserted. 
From the wharf the noise of embarking came 
warningly. 

“Gee! They’re going!” Billy caught her 
hand and ran with her down the steep hill. 

But they were too late. When first they 
started, the steamer was setting off. Now she 
was well out in the lake, headed northward, 

Billy called at the top of his voice; and Er- 
minie added her frantic shriek to his; but the 
band was playing, the young people shouting 
and “jollying,” and no one heard. The two 
could hear sudden gusts of laughter rising above 
the music, and after that the steady rhythm and 
beat of the instruments. 

“Oh, Billy, it’s no use!” Erminie sobbed, as 
the boat grew smaller and smaller on the gray 
water. 

“ I guess we’re in for a night of it on a desert 
island.” 

They faced each other there in the moonlight, 
silent, wondering, perplexed. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE REVEALING NIGHT 

F or minutes they stood looking after the 
boat. They could not believe it true. 
Left on the island, far from any habitation! 
It seemed as if some one must miss them, as if 
the steamer would surely come chugging back 
after them. 

But instead it went farther and farther away, 
and presently out of sight. 

As the last gleam of light disappeared around 
a far point of land, Erminie turned in dismay. 

“ Oh, Billy, do you know the way to the Beck- 
ets’?” 

“Who are they? I never heard of them.” 
“They live on this island, but I don’t know 
the direction.” 

“The island is five miles long and wooded 
like a jungle. We might wander in a circle for 
hours and not get five hundred yards from where 
we started.” Billy spoke calmly and rather ab- 
103 


104 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


sently. He was sizing up the situation, trying 
to see the best way out of it. While they talked, 
clouds that had been earlier hovering on the 
horizon, now joined and veiled the moon. 

“Gee! If Luna goes back on us we’ll have 
to give up travel by land.” 

“ Perhaps there ’s a boat — canoe or rowboat.” 

“I ’ll see. You stay here a minute — ” 

She caught his hand. “Billy! If you leave 
me I’ll scream; and if I do that I’ll faint, I 
know I will. There may be wild cats!” 

Billy laid an impressive hand on her arm. 
“ Kid, there are no wild animals about here. 
We ’re just as safe here as anywhere. And what- 
ever comes, we’ve got to buck up and take it, 
haven’t we?” 

“ Ye-es, I suppose so. Oh, I ’ll try to be game 
if — if only you won’t leave me, Billy.” 

“All right. It’s partnership, then. Come 
on.” 

They went to the wharf and skirted the lake 
up and down a few steps, but found nothing. 

“ Perhaps that path we took leads to some 
house,” Erminie suggested. 

They climbed the hill to the pavilions again. 


STANDS THE TEST 


105 

and followed the path ; but it ended in the little 
clearing where they had sat a few minutes be- 
fore — hours it seemed to Billy. 

“ Possibly there ’s some other trail leading off 
from the park ; let ’s investigate.” 

They went back, and slowly, and with many 
scratches from blackberry vines, Billy leading, 
they felt their way around it, diving into the 
dense thickets at each premising bit of openness, 
only to be met after a few steps with close-woven 
vines, breast-high ferns braided like a net, or 
fallen logs covered with briers. 

Erminie stumbled and almost fell ; rose pluck- 
ily before Billy could reach her; tried again; 
fell prone the next time, and was not quite on 
her feet when he came. 

“Erminie, you can’t stand this. We’ll have 
to give it up. It’s so dark anyway with the 
moon hidden that if there was a path we ’d likely 
miss it.” 

“What then, Billy? We can’t give up try- 
ing.” 

“Suppose we try the shore again. Perhaps 
we can make it that way to some house.” 

She agreed, and they went to the water’s edge 


io6 BILLY TO-MORROW 


and started north. But their progress was 
stopped by the very promontory from which, 
high above, they had looked out on the moonlit 
lake. The bank rose perpendicularly from the 
water, which was deep here; and the only way 
to proceed was to climb back to the cleared space 
and down on the other side, a course they had al- 
ready proved unfeasible. 

Next they tried the southern way. Unlike the 
shores of salt water, there was no beach to be 
bared by lowering tides; and they could only 
pick their way along shore at the edges of the 
same dense growth as above, a growth that in 
spots even trespassed on the water. 

They succeeded in going some distance; and 
once were cheered by discovering an unmistak- 
able path; but when they had followed it a little 
distance it grew less plain, and broke into half 
a dozen blind trails which all ended in the blank 
wall of green. 

They tried one or two of these, their courage 
and Erminie’s strength growing less with each 
effort. 

“What made trails like these, I wonder?” 
Billy asked, half to himself. 


STANDS THE TEST 


107 


“ Could they be deer trails? There were ever 
so many on the island years ago; dad used to 
come here to hunt.” 

“Whatever they are they aren’t for us.” Billy 
looked at his watch. “ Twelve o’clock! We ’ve 
been thrashing round for nearly two hours, and 
got nowhere; and you’re all in, Erminie. We 
must go back to the picnic ground and think out 
some other scheme.” 

Erminie made no objection. She was too 
weary and frightened to do anything but fall in 
with his suggestions. Billy himself, as per- 
plexed as she was, and with the added weight 
of responsibility for her safety, felt the need of 
a little respite for fresh planning. 

In silence they climbed the hill again, each 
thankful for the broad smooth path that led up 
from the steamer landing. 

“The first thing is a snack, Erminie. It’s a 
great thing for us that my mother’s eyes are big- 
ger than our appetites, — at least for a first trial.” 

He left her in the pavilion and went to look 
for his basket, but it was gone. Puzzled and 
more weary than he knew till this fresh disap- 
pointment revealed it, he dropped to the ground 


io8 BILLY TO-MORROW 


for an instant in sheer discouragement. What 
next? They would have to remain all night, — 
there was no other way. And what would that 
mean? 

For himself it did not matter; he would tell 
his people just how it happened, and they would 
believe him; they always did. But Erminie — 
would other people — strangers — believe? 
Think as well of her as before? Would her fa- 
ther — Her father! What would he say? 
Billy knew he was a violent man; what would 
he do? 

She called him, and there was a pitiful note 
of distress in her voice that warned Billy he 
must not leave her alone. “I’m coming!” he 
answered, and sprang up, aroused by her need 
to fresh action and a semblance of cheer. “You 
can’t shake me, you see.” He ran up the steps 
toward her. 

“ I ’m so afraid when you are not near me, 
Billy.” Her voice trembled. 

“ I could n’t find our basket. I guess Mumps 
or some of them thought I had forgotten it, and 
took it along.” 

A sudden gust shook the trees above them, and 


STANDS THE TEST 


109 

the noise coming so unexpectedly on the dead 
quiet of the cloudy night, startled them. 

“ It ’s going to rain ; and you ’re shivering, 
too,” he added as he took her outstretched hand 
at the top of the steps. “The first thing to do 
is to make a fire.” 

“ Can you? Have you any matches?” 

“No, but I guess there will be some coals 
under the ashes.” 

They went down and raked over the fireplace, 
but the boys had obeyed the rules only too well ; 
every vestige of live coal was gone. 

For a minute they stood speechless, looking 
out over the dark and angry water. There 
seemed to Erminie absolutely nothing further 
to be done. She was worn and faint, and with 
difficulty restrained her tears. 

“ There ’s nothing for it but to try to make a 
fire camp fashion. It will be tough work, even 
if it doesn’t rain.” 

As if in answer to this last, another gust swept 
through the trees, louder than the first. 

“Erminie, you’re just all right. You’ve 
never once hinted that I was the boss slob to get 
you into this.” 


I lO 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“Why, Billy, I wouldn’t think of such a 
thing. I saw as plain as you that half-past ten 
was the leaving hour. It’s the fault of the 
steamer people; or — Are you sure your 
watch is right?” 

“Yes. It’s never failed yet. My brother Hal 
said it was guaranteed. He gave it to me. It 
hasn’t varied a minute in two months. But this 
is n’t work. You go back and cuddle as close in 
that corner as you can, little girl, and try to 
keep warm, while I see what I can do with my 
jack knife. Here’s a time when a fellow that 
smokes has the advantage.” 

“I don’t see why he couldn’t carry matches 
if he didn’t smoke.” 

“ I know one chump that will after this.” 

But Erminie did not settle to uselessness. 

“While you’re trying to make a fire I’ll see 
what was shaken out of the tablecloth. I saw 
them hold it over this corner; and if we could 
find a roll or a bit of meat, — you wouldn’t mind 
eating scraps just about now, would you, 
Billy?” 

The cheer that came into her tone with the 
prospect of something to do heartened Billy as 
much as herself. “ Mind? I could eat the shell 


STANDS THE TEST 


III 


right off the eggs. You ’re a bright kid, you 
are, all right.” 

“Oh, I’m sure it will be something better 
than egg-shells.” 

“Go to it. You may find a course dinner 
there in the grass, or at least the nice brown tint 
on one of Bess Carter’s biscuits.” 

She laughed, which pleased him; and he went 
to a spot in the path where he remembered to 
have stubbed his toe on a projecting rock, in- 
tending to get it for a flint. But he had barely 
found it when she called to him. 

“ Billy! Billy! I ’ve found a match-box with 
one match in it.” 

“Bully! We ’re saved!” He was by her side 
in a second. 

“But one match, — it’s — ” 

“ It ’s as good as ten.” 

He was woodsman enough to succeed with 
his fire very quickly. 

“ How did you come to be so clever, Billy?” 

She watched him intently as he prepared his 
gathered paper, twigs, bits of bark, and boughs; 
and struck his precious match within the shelter 
of his coat. 

Soon a crackling blaze cheered and warmed 


I 12 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


them. And when Erminie found some sand- 
wiches and a few bits of ham thrown away in 
its wrappings of oiled paper, they felt as if a 
second feast had been like manna dropped from 
heaven to save them. The moon broke through 
the clouds for a minute, and Billy, rummaging 
in the grass, found the discarded coffee sack. 

“ Good enough ! Hot coffee in five minutes ! ” 
he called softly. Without realizing it they had 
not spoken really aloud. Unconsciously they 
felt and acted as if a thousand sentient, invisible 
beings surrounded them, hearing and seeing 
their every word and move. 

Billy found a lard pail, one among the many 
thrown away, washed it, saw it did not leak, and 
put the coffee to boil a second time. When a 
few minutes later they drank it, without sugar 
or cream, they thought it better than any coffee 
they had ever tasted before. 

With hunger banished and the cheer of the 
warm fire, the situation seemed less direful; and 
they sat with feet to the embers and talked more 
calmly. 

“ Don’t you think a steamer will be along 
early in the morning, Billy?” 


STANDS THE TEST 


II3 


“ I don’t know the Sunday schedule very well. 
I think they stop here only for picnic parties; 
but I shall tie my handkerchief to the signal 
pole; maybe she’ll see it out there if she has a 
regular run to town.” 

“There’ll be the Sunday picnics! But we 
don’t want — we must not be seen by — by any- 
body here.” 

The tone of desperation told him that she had 
waked to the fact that had troubled him ever 
since he knew they were left, — what might be 
said when their plight became known. 

“ It’s lucky to-morrow’s Sunday; it needn’t 
be known at school,” he comforted. 

“How can it be helped?” 

“ If we can’t get a steamer in the early morn- 
ing you can hide in the brush by the wharf till 
the boat discharges her passengers; and when 
they are climbing the hill, you step into the path 
and head for the steamer. No one will know 
that you are not one of them, and the steamer 
people will think you came only for the boat 
ride, or — oh, they won’t notice you any way.” 

“But the picnickers, Billy; they’ll know I 
don’t belong — ” 


BILLY T 0-M O R R O W 


114 

“ Sure they won’t. At those promiscuous pub- 
lic picnics half are strangers to the rest.” 

“ But you, Billy? When—?” 

“Don’t worry about this kid. If we’re not 
seen together, no one will be able to say certainly 
that we were here. You just ’phone my mother 
that I’m safe — ” He stopped suddenly, his 
face pale with another thought which he did 
not voice, — her people might be seeking her, 
telephoning to the pupils, the police. That 
would mean certain disclosure of the whole sit- 
uation. “Your mother will be having a bad 
time, I’m afraid,” he said calmly. 

To his consternation Erminie showed no con- 
cern. “Oh, no; ma won’t worry. She’ll think 
I ’ve gone home with one of the girls.” 

“Is it — is it often — that way? Doesn’t she 
know where you go?” 

“Not to which house. I’ve a lot of chums, 
most of them out of school; and their young 
men — when I don’t have one of my own — take 
us to the theatre, and to supper afterwards; and 
it’s late then; and if I stay with the girl the 
young fellow does n’t have to make another trip 
taking me home.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


115 


Billy was silent, wondering what his mother 
would think of a girl who went about thus. It 
revealed to him a new sort of girl-life. In his 
boyhood town of Vina such a situation as this 
could not have happened; and in his city life 
he had known intimately only the cherished and 
protected daughters of careful parents. 

His own evenings were full of boyish things, 
meetings, study, decorous calls, and work or 
play at home. His attendance at the theatre was 
rare, either in school groups or with his mother, 
or alone, high among the “gallery gods.” He 
tried to put out of mind the feeling of “com- 
monness” that Erminie’s story gave him. 

As if she divined his thought, she said a little 
plaintively, “ I know lots of mothers don’t think 
it nice for girls to run about so ; but mine always 
told me to go ahead and have a good time while 
I could. When I am married, she says, all such 
fun will be over.” 

“Well, it won’t be!” Billy’s vehemence 
startled her. “ But it will be a long time before 
we can be married ; I ’ve got to learn how to earn 
a living first. But it shall be a good enough liv- 
ing to include a little fun.” 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


1 16 

“Billy!” Surprise, gratitude, and besides 
these a more genuine and womanly emotion than 
she had ever experienced, came out in the single 
word. “Billy, what do you mean?” 

“Mean? Why, our marriage of course. At 
first I felt badly because you would have to wait 
so long; but I don’t any more. I had a good 
chin with my mother. You and I — we’ll both 
of us be all the better for waiting and — learn- 
ing things.” 

For a time Erminie sat quite still save for ab- 
sently stirring the ashes with a twig. When she 
did speak her voice was low, with a half timid 
note in it that touched Billy. “ How splendid 
you are, Billy! Too good for me. I didn’t 
dream you thought that — that we were en- 
gaged.” 

“Gee! How else could I save you from Al- 
vin Short?” 

“But, Billy, that — that is not exactly a rea- 
son for — for — ” 

“Don’t you care for me? Wasn’t that what 
you meant that night I — I kissed you?” 

“Oh, yes, I care for you, Billy; ever so much; 
but I never got as far as an engagement. I — ” 


STANDS THE TEST 


1 17 

“ But that kiss — ” 

“Oh, I just thought you kissed me because — 
well — because — Oh, Billy, do you tell your 
mother everything?” 

He caught the anxiety in her speech, and won- 
dered if kisses of the sort he had given her were 
so common in her life that she could dismiss 
them with merely a “because.” But his reply 
was to her question only. 

“’Most everything. You see I’m just the 
common transparent sort, — she reads me any- 
way. But of course I didn’t tell her about you; 
that’s your secret. I shall not tell that till you 
give me leave.” 

She caught up his hand in both her own. 
“ I believe you ’re the best boy that ever lived.” 

“Boy! That’s just what I am! And you 
need a man, right now, to protect you.” 

“You are doing it,— doing it better than any 
man I ever knew.” 

He threw on some more wood. “ I ’ll have to 
hunt fuel in a minute,” he said, and stirred the 
fire to a blaze. 

“What did your mother say that changed 
your mind about — about — ” 


ii8 BILLY TO-MORROW 


“About waiting to get married?” he finished 
as she hesitated, and repeated much of the con- 
versation prompted by the pinching of the ger- 
anium buds. 

Erminie was silent again, and Billy waited on 
her mood. When she did speak her words were 
plaintive and halting. “ Billy, — Billy, dear, it 
would be a very wrong thing for you to marry 
me. I am older, anyway, and it would wreck 
your life to be hampered with a — a wife when 
you’re so young. Perhaps — perhaps there’ll 
be — ” 

“ Perhaps children,” he finished fearlessly. 
“I’ve thought that all out; but you need me to 
take care of you; and after — this — this night, 
it’s got to be.” 

“Oh! oh!” She cowered a little closer. 
“People won’t know of — of this — ” She put 
her hand over her eyes and shivered. 

“They may; and — ” 

“It’s awful!” she burst out. “Just because 
an accident happens, for people to talk — say 
bad things about us.” 

“ They won’t think it an accident, Erminie. 
Don’t you see? I have a watch — all our set 


STANDS THE TEST 


119 

know how foolishly I Ve bragged about it. We 
had our strict orders not to go out of sight — ” 

“We weren’t out of sight, — not in the day- 
time anyway.” 

“And to be on hand at the ten-thirty whistle.” 

“ But it was n’t ten-thirty ; it was ten.” 

“We can’t make folks believe that.” 

A sudden dash of rain fell upon them and 
made the fire sputter. 

“Gee!” Billy sprang up and threw on the 
last of the wood, arranging it to cover the heart 
of the fire from the rain. “Get under shelter, 
quick! We’re in for a heavy shower.” 

She stood, but did not move away. “Aren’t 
you coming too?” 

“No. I must keep up the fire. Go and get 
under the table; that will be more sheltered. 
Here! Tie my handkerchief around your 
neck.” 

There, was a new insistence in his words. She 
obeyed as a little child, and he hastened to the 
fringing woods. He remembered where he had 
seen a fallen tree, and a lot of loose bark, and 
chips that might have been hewn from the rough 
beams that supported the floor of the pavilion. 


120 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


But he did not touch any of these. Instead 
he whipped out his knife and began to slash at 
a fir that was thrashing in the rising wind. He 
worked fast, piling branches till he had all he 
could carry, when he took them to the pavilion 
where Erminie sat huddled on a seat. 

“That won’t go, kid! You’ve got to obey or- 
ders. Here!” 

He threw down the branches and began to 
strip off the soft tips. 

“Let me help you, Billy.” She set at it, glad 
of action. 

“There!” He piled them under the table, 
spread them smoothly, and stood back. “ In 
with you! I ’ll have to spread the covers. You 
can’t do it for yourself, — not in this boarding 
house.” 

She was not deceived by his jocularity, but 
something compelled her to submit without 
words. She lay down in the sweet-smelling lit- 
ter, and he covered her thick with the boughs. 

“Sorry my blankets are so heavy, but they’re 
the best the house affords.” 

“But where is your — what will you do, 
Billy? You must be awfully tired.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


I2I 


“I’d be a nice lad to go to sleep now, 
wouldn’t I? The fire must be kept up, the 
wolves scared away; bears, too, and — ” 

“Oh, Billy, don’t 1” Her self-control broke, 
and she began to cry. 

“Say! Kid! If you do that I’ll run away! 
I ’ll jump into the drink! I can fight a bear, but 
I can’t stand salt water — not that sort!” 

He reached down, felt for her face, and pat- 
ted her cheek. “You’ve been as plucky as — 
Do you know, I really can’t — ” 

What in Cain was the matter with him? 
Would he snivel too? Right there! Before 
her? He scorned himself silently, not knowing 
that the situation and her pitiful tears were 
enough to break an older and calmer fellow 
than he was. 

“There, Billy! Good boy! I’m all right 
now. I won’t cry another tear. Why should I? 
I have the best, the bravest — ” 

“ Cut it out! I ’m the fool that got you left.” 
He ran off with her half laughing challenge 
to fate ringing in his ears. “Billy, I almost 
don’t care. It ’s awfully grand to see any one 
prove all to the good the way you do.” 


122 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


Back to the chips and the bark he hurried, 
and had hard work to nurse his fire in the rain. 
Only by a constant piling of the dried 
fir branches that he found around the prostrate 
tree did he defy the shower, — which was harder 
now, — and keep the blaze going till it passed. 
When at last the clouds broke and the moon ap- 
peared it was behind the hill, leaving the little 
clearing in the shadow; but a faint tinge of 
lighter gray in the east heralded the dawn. 

Worn with anxiety more than with effort, 
Billy dragged some dryer limbs from under the 
tree, finding them by feeling rather than by 
sight, as indeed he had done nearly everything 
that night. After banking his fire high with 
bark, he shook his wet cap and put it to dry, 
threw open his wet coat to the heat, and pre- 
pared to watch out the rest of the short night. 

Soon an irresistible drowsiness overtook him. 
He fought desperately, not wishing to stir about 
lest he should keep Erminie awake. In the 
midst of a moment that was perilously near un- 
consciousness, she called : 

“The signal, Billy! You forgot it. Here’s 
the handkerchief.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


123 


“ Gee whiz ! ” He sprang up and went to her. 
“My forgettery deserves a medal. You should 
be proud to — ” 

“Stop calling yourself names, my — ” 

“It’s mean to take it,” he interrupted, “but 
I have nothing else.” 

“ I don’t need it. I am as warm as a kitten in 
a feather pillow. It was a shame to wake you.” 

“Wake! Do you think I’d sleep when — ” 
He stopped, recalling how near he had come to 
the Land of Nod. 

“But you must, — a little anyway. I’m not 
afraid any more. She reached the handkerchief 
up to him, and he took it, holding and patting 
her hand a second before he went on. “ Good 
girl! You make a jolly fine pal all right. I’ll 
bank on you.” 

With those words still on his lips as he ran 
down the path to the wharf, suddenly before 
him rose the face of May Nell. Something 
tugged at him, gave him a queer feeling that he 
could not understand. He wished Erminie’s 
mother had been like Mrs. Smith, that Erminie 
might know all the beautiful things May Nell 


124 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


knew, might look out on life with May Nell’s 
clear, loving vision of the soul of things. 

Even as he thought, and chided himself for it, 
while he fixed the tiny, fluttering signal, a rosy 
light in the east told him the night was going, 
and deliverance near. 

Another dilemma presented itself — suppose 
a steamer should answer his signal, what 
would the crew, the scattering passengers, think 
if Erminie came aboard alone at that early 
hour? Could she do it and not cause comment? 
A story for the papers perhaps? 

With this in mind he ran back, thinking to 
ask her; but no words greeted his noisy steps, 
and he knew she must be asleep at last. He 
threw himself on the ground before the ash-cov- 
ered embers and in five minutes he also was lost 
to his troubles. 

He had taken the precaution to face the east 
in such away that the sun, surmounting some tall 
firs, would waken him as nearly as he could 
guess at about six o’clock. As the first ray 
struck into his eye he started up to find it nearer 
seven, though but for his watch and the dancing, 
diamond-tipped ripples in the track of the 


STANDS THE TEST 


12.5 

morning sun, he would have declared he had 
not slept five minutes. 

“Half an hour for breakfast!” he called 
cheerily. Erminie answered, and soon came 
down to him. 

At once Billy told her his latest worry, and 
asked her opinion. 

“ 1 believe 1 ’d better risk it. If the captain 
says anything, I ’ll tell him I got left. It will 
be about nine when I get home, and people I 
know won’t be out so early.” 

“Then we’ll have another dish of manna, 
and — ” 

A whistle interrupted Billy. 

“There she is now! What’s got into my 
watch? That’s been the joker all the time.” 

“ Do you suppose she’ 11 stop, Billy?” Erminie 
had already started down the hill. 

“You ’ll have to run for it. Got any money? ” 
While he spoke he thrust a dollar in her hand 
and she flew down the path out of his sight. 

He heard the signal to stop, heard the mate 
cry “All aboard!” as usual before the gang 
plank was lowered, and after a moment heard 
the vessel puff her way out on her course again. 


126 BILLY TO-MORROW 


When he was certain that Erminie was off he 
realized, as not before, his great fatigue. A 
search by morning light revealed many tooth- 
some bits of picnic dainties in the high, clean 
grass, which he gathered, an egg in an unbroken 
shell, some butter in a covered jelly glass, and 
a bun which he toasted by the coals. 

They did not taste very good. In spite of 
sunshine he was depressed. The night had re- 
vealed Erminie in a way that almost repelled 
him at the time; but now that she was gone she 
seemed nearer and dearer than ever before. 

After eating, and raking out the fire, he care- 
fully removed all traces of Erminie’s bed to a 
nook well hidden in the brush, and threw him- 
self down on it to rest. He did not expect to 
sleep, — he had too much that was exciting to 
think of; but hardly had he touched his bed of 
fir when Morpheus claimed him. He heard 
nothing till the advent of noisy picnickers ar- 
riving on the four o’clock steamer, when he 
jumped up, drowsy still, skirted the park care- 
fully, and barely made the steamer in time. 

At half past five, dishevelled and haggard, he 
walked into his mother’s room. 


CHAPTER VII 


“ DO YOUR BEST AND THEN — WHISTLE ” 

B ILLY! My son!” Mrs. Bennett started 
forward as he opened her door, and threw 
her arms around his neck. 

“Did she — did a girl telephone you that I 
was all right, mother?” 

“Yes. This morning. She said ybu were de- 
tained, but did not tell me where or why.” 
“What else did she say?” 

“Nothing, but hung up the receiver before I 
could ask any questions. Very odd, I thought; 
certainly not courteous.” 

“Mother, don’t judge her too quickly. A 
girl who has to stay all night out in the woods 
with a chap like me, is not likely to be very 
proud of telling it around.” 

“Why, William Bennett!” 

Billy was as much astonished to see his mother 
turn pale as he was to hear in that stern tone his 
127 


128 BILLY TO-MORROW 


full name. “Sit down, marms. It’s all right 
for me, but pretty rocky for her.” 

Then he told her the whole story, except that 
he did not divulge Erminie’s name, nor their 
relation to each other. 

For a long time they were silent, his mother 
strangely serious and sad, it seemed to Billy. At 
length she turned to him, took both his hands in 
hers, and looked steadily in his eyes, but still 
did not speak. 

He bore the scrutiny well though it made him 
uncomfortable. “ Don’t look like that, mother. 
What could we have done different or better 
than we did?” 

She kissed him on the cheek and he felt her 
closer clasp. “Nothing, my boy. It was one 
of those trying situations one cannot foresee. 
But it is serious. Do you realize what it will 
entail upon this girl if evil-speaking people 
learn the story?” 

“ Gee ! That ’s what I Ve been thinking of all 
night. But I don’t see how any one is to know 
about it.” 

“If she is questioned she will have to tell 
more than one falsehood to keep people from 


STANDS THE TEST 


129 

knowing some one was with her; and lies al- 
ways defeat themselves.” 

“ Well, mother, if it comes to the worst I shall 
stand by her.” 

“Of course, if you can; but whatever you say 
will only harm her. Your silence is the best 
thing you can give her.” 

“ I can marry her.” 

If Billy had shot at his mother he could 
have astonished her hardly more. 

“ Billy! You ’re only a little boy ! ” she gasped 
with her first recovered breath. 

“ Oh, not to-day, but after a while. And 
meantime, while I’m growing old enough and 
earning something, I can lick any fool that 
speaks against her.” 

In a long life of many trials Mrs. Bennett had 
learned self-control; also that many worries are 
best left alone for a time before attacking them. 
She rose and stood behind Billy’s chair, strok- 
ing his soft, abundant hair. “ Boy, put such 
thoughts out of your mind. They are unsuited 
to you. Whatever is just and right, whatever is 
manly and needed by this girl from you, that of 
course you must do. But time will show what 


130 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


that may be. In the meantime you must go on 
as usual, doing the duty of each day. Just now 
that means a bath, supper, your lessons, and 
bed.” 

Again she kissed him, drew her hand caress- 
ingly across his forehead, and left the room. 
And to Billy’s keen ear it seemed as if her step 
in a moment had become the slow, shuffling 
tread of an old woman. 

As the evening passed, his depression grew. 
He found it difficult to study. The pages were 
meaningless. Or if he roused himself to some 
attention suddenly the print blurred, and he 
heard again the quick tempest of the night be- 
fore surging through the trees, or Erminie’s pit- 
iful, “I’m so afraid, Billy!” 

And his mother’s step, as she left the room, 
haunted him. What had made her walk like 
that? He began to suspect the case was worse 
than he had thought if it could hurt her so. 
“Betsey, Betsey! Why didn’t you get a move 
on?” he whispered whimsically. It was years 
since he had thought of his boyish name for his 
conscience. Yet reviewing the night’s experi- 
ence he could find little blame for himself. 


STANDS THE TEST 


131 

His large attic room, usually so cheery and so 
much to his wish, was full of sounds that to his 
overwrought mind seemed to come from un- 
seen beings. He listened for a time, then 
switched on the light; and seeing only the fa- 
miliar scene, turned it off again, impatient with 
himself, ashamed. He need not have been so. 
He was neither a coward nor a hyper-sensitive ; 
it was his own high-strung imagination that 
peopled the darkness with jeering shapes. 

But finally he slept. And with the morning 
youth asserted itself, and he went off to school 
with new courage to meet whatever might come. 

That proved to be nothing unusual. Er- 
minie was there, pale and quiet, but otherwise 
quite herself. By a subtle understanding that 
needed no explaining they kept apart. No one 
seemed to notice them except Jim; at noon he 
watched Erminie’s every move. At first Billy 
thought himself over-suspicious; but once when 
he caught a gleam in Jim’s eye, saw the covert 
smile on his lips, Billy knew something mali- 
cious was brewing; believed that the Kid pos- 
sessed their secret and only waited his own time 
to use it — no one could foretell how. 


132 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


Billy was not very light of heart when he 
went around after school to Mr. Smith’s town 
office, and found Dr. Carter there. He wished 
to talk with Mr. Smith alone, to ask him for 
employment, for something to do that would be 
worth good wages at once. He was not skilled 
of course, but he was strong and quick, able to 
do a man’s work at hard labor ; and with a boy’s 
optimism he knew he could learn, “ Make good 
from the start.” 

Dr. Carter’s genial face and excellent stories, 
even though Billy knew he had no better friend 
anywhere, were not welcome to him now. He 
did not know just how to proceed. He wondered 
if the two were considering business; though it 
must be so, since Mr. Smith was a very busy 
man, and it was still in business hours. And yet 
they were laughing heartily and had admitted 
Billy at once. 

“Well, what can I do for you, Billy?” Mr. 
Smith asked cordially. “Jove! It’s time we 
called you ‘ Mr. Bennett,’ you ’re such a giant.” 
Mr. Smith was a short, stout man, and when he 
stood beside Billy he had to lift his face to look 
into the boy’s eyes. 


STANDS THE TEST 


133 


The doctor greeted Billy in his quiet, friendly 
way; and with his firm hand-clasp a quick mem- 
ory came to Billy of the day, so long ago, when 
he had found the counterfeiters, and raced to 
town on his wheel with his secret, not knowing 
how to tell it till he met the doctor. Again he 
saw himself, coatless, torn, dusty, freckled, his 
hair wet and “ plastered,” following the immac- 
ulate doctor into the grand dining room of the 
new hotel. After that came the memory of 
telling his story to the sheriff, and of that awful 
trip when he led the sheriff and posse up the 
mountain, through the edge of the forest fire to 
the counterfeiters’ den. And after that, the 
rescue of May Nell — 

These pictures flashed through his mind dur- 
ing the instant he was returning the doctor’s 
greeting; and on recalling himself he felt as if 
he were coming back from a long journey, felt 
unpardonably abrupt when he tried to state his 
business to Mr. Smith. 

“I came to — I’d like — ” 

“You’d like a private interview? Is that 
it?” Mr. Smith prompted. 

“The boy’s after a job. Don’t give it to him. 


134 BILLY TO-MORROW 

Mr. Smith. He’d better play through his va- 
cation; he works hard enough at school to de- 
serve it.” The doctor smiled and rose to go; 
and Billy wondered how it was that the doctor 
could “ beat a chap’s own thinker to it.” He did 
not know that the keen, trained sense that en- 
ables a skilled physician to read the hidden 
meaning of every line and tint and pulse of the 
body, could also reveal to him the meanings the 
mind writes into voice and eye. 

As soon as he had gone Mr. Smith motioned 
Billy to a seat and listened with no interruption, 
while the boy told his errand. For a time after 
he had finished, the man of affairs continued 
to draw meaningless designs on the blotter, till 
Billy grew first hot, then cold, and wished him- 
self away. 

“ What can you do? ” 

“1 — I don’t know. Is n’t there a lot of just 
common work to do on your railroad that 
you’re building over to Tum-wah? I surely 
can do digging; I am strong.” 

“Yes, there is plenty of digging,” Mr. Smith 
said absently, and again lapsed into silence. 

“ Does your mother know you’re doing this?” 


STANDS THE TEST 


135 

he questioned so suddenly at last that Billy 
jumped. 

“ She does n’t know I ’m here to-day, but she 
knows that I intend to work this summer, — per- 
haps right along.” 

“Do you intend to dig in the dirt for a liv- 
ing?” 

The stern words stung Billy as a whiplash. 
“No, sir. I hope to do something better — I 
shall do something better after a while,” he 
added with an energy that pleased Mr. Smith. 

“ Have you decided what you will make your 
life work?” 

“I’ve thought of — ” He was about to say 
journalism but something about this fearless, 
successful man made the boy feel young and 
very ignorant. “ I had thought of trying to get 
on a newspaper.” 

“Nothing in it! You’ll smell of a grindstone 
all your life, and be a slave besides.” 

“Slave?” Billy repeated anxiously. 

“Yes. The newspaper business is no longer 
an outlet for individual character. It’s just a 
machine where each man is a cog, and writes 
what he is told, no matter what he believes. If 


136 BILLY TO-MORROW 

his stuff is good the paper gets the credit; if it 
isn’t he is fired.” 

Billy made no reply to this, but after a mo- 
ment asked, “ Would not that be the way with 
anything I tried at first? ” 

“Yes, boy, it would.” There was an unex- 
pected kindness in his tone. He rose and walked 
once or twice across the richly furnished office, 
when he stopped and looked down upon Billy, 
who sat with every muscle tense, his hands un- 
consciously gripping the chair arms. 

“ Billy, ever since the day you prevented that 
devil from kidnapping May Nell, I ’ve had you 
in mind. I’ve no son of my own; but if I had, 
I ’d be glad if he was as much of a man as 
you’ve always shown yourself.” 

Again he walked the length of the room and 
back. “You know I wanted to educate you; but 
your mother was right, wiser than 1 . Now I ’m 
not so sure I ’m going to do this thing you ’ve 
asked of me. If you need money to tide you 
through your school, Billy, I shall be more than 
glad to advance it. No amount of money will 
square what your family has done for mine. But 
— I’m blamed if I’m going to help you ruin 


STANDS THE TEST 


137 


your future. What you need now is school, and 
the university; a year or two of running about 
the country to see what sort of a nation you be- 
long to; and then you’ll be fit to settle in some 
business where you ’ll have men digging for you. 
That’s what I want you to do, Billy.” 

The boy could not speak. This was what he 
had looked forward to, had planned to do, even 
if he had to earn his way and take years in doing 
it. But Erminie’s coming into his life had 
changed everything. Such dreams must be 
abandoned for a different and harder future. 

At last he stood, and looked into Mr. Smith’s 
face steadily, but with a disappointment in his 
determined eyes that touched the man. “There 
are reasons, — reasons that I am not at liberty 
to mention, Mr. Smith, why I must go to work 
as soon as school closes ; and probably I shall not 
be able to go back. If you had anything I could 
do I would rather work for you than for any one 
else. I ’d try very hard, sir.” He hesitated an 
instant, but not long enough for the other to 
speak. “But since you don’t approve I must 
look farther.” He stepped toward the door. 

“ Here ! Sit down ! If you ’re bound to make 


138 BILLY TO-MORROW 

a fool of yourself about work it might as well 
be where I can hold you down to it till you ’re 
sick of it, and come to your senses.” Mr. 
Smith’s eyes twinkled, and his voice was softer 
than his words. “You needn’t hunt any other 
boss. I ’ll have a job for you when you come for 
it. How soon will that be?” 

“School closes on the twenty-third of June; 
I ’ll be ready the morning of the twenty-fourth.” 

“That’s Saturday. I won’t take any fellow 
from school till he ’s had a vacation ; come Mon- 
day, the twenty-sixth.” He laughed at his own 
joke, and opened the door, and Billy knew the 
interview was ended, yet he tried to stammer his 
thanks. 

“I’m very— I’m — ” 

“Get out with you! I won’t be thanked for 
helping you to ruin yourself!” Mr. Smith blus- 
tered, and shut the door on Billy. 

Ruin himself! The words roused a sudden 
anger. He’d show them! This course that he 
was taking was not his own choice; circum- 
stances forced it on him. It was the right thing 
to do, and right never ruined any one. Or if it 
did — He looked up as he walked and saw a 


STANDS THE TEST 


139 


lineman high among the deadly light wires, held 
only by belt and spurs, busily splicing wires and 
whistling at his work. 

“ That ’s it,” Billy thought. “ Do what I have 
to do as well and carefully as I can, and then — 
whistle.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE POTATO ROAST 


FEW nights later came the rally of the 



■l\. Progressives before their election for play- 
ground officers. Since the episode of the stilts 
Hector had taken a prominent part in play- 
ground affairs, and some thought it was hurting 
his candidacy for president of the student body, 
— that it was too small a matter for high-school 
students to consider. But he held to his course. 

The election for president was due the next 
week. Jim had decided on the next afternoon, 
Friday, for Walter Buckman’s last demonstra- 
tion. Hector’s party had held their preelection 
meeting also; but this playground rally would 
be one more opportunity to test Hector’s 
strength. 

The benches were arranged on the ball ground 
this time, and Billy, who was manager, saw that 
everything was ready before he went home for 
dinner. When he came again he found Mumps, 


140 


BILLY TO-MORROW 141 

Redtop, and the squad of freshmen left on 
guard, looking as if there had been things doing. 

“It’s good the cop’s coming to-night; the 
Kid’s crowd intend to act up,” Mumps said as 
Billy came up. 

“What makes you think so?” 

“They tried to beat us out of the benches.” 

“How did you stop it? I see they haven’t 
been touched.” 

“ Mumps is the keen kid,” Redtop com- 
mended; “he told ’em we had those benches 
from the supervisor and could keep them here 
till to-morrow morning; and that we had a cop 
to see that no one interfered with them.” 

“Bully for you, Mumps!” 

“ Redtop told the Kid that if they get busy 
hoodooing the Progressives that’s all we ask; it 
will be the prettiest sort of a finish for the Kid 
and Buckman.” 

“ Do you think that fixes them?” 

“Yes, unless — They have some plan hatch- 
ing to beat Hector that we can’t find out. The 
election’s no walk-over for Hector; I can tell 
you that.” 

Billy noticed that the Buckman boys were 


142 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


rather quiet, standing about in small groups on 
the edge of the crowd; and also that whenever 
he went near them the talking suddenly stopped; 
and once he caught a significant lifting of the 
brow and a sneering smile. 

There were many people already on the 
ground besides school children, some walking 
about in the waning sunlight. Even at half-past 
eight the torches seemed a joke this late May 
evening. 

But the band was no joke. It was the band of 
the Chetwoot (black bear) Troop of Scouts, the 
newsboys’ troop, and Mr. Streeter’s pride. 
Their uniform was handsome, their marching 
excellent, and their music remarkable consider- 
ing they had been playing together less than a 
year. Under the guidance of the best teacher 
Mr. Streeter could hire for them, and with an 
enthusiasm that warmed his heart, the little 
chaps worked together night after night; and 
now, when they came up the street, and filed into 
their places, proud of being invited to play be- 
fore such a large audience, he led the clapping, 
which lasted till long after the boys were seated. 

Billy made a good chairman. Everything 


STANDS THE TEST 


143 


went oflf in orderly fashion. The girls were rep- 
resented by two short speeches in which the im- 
portance of good manners on the playground 
was emphasized; the band played several selec- 
tions; Hector spoke convincingly of the respon- 
sibility of the Fifth Avenue High for the good 
name of the playground, and Reginald Steele 
won the fathers and mothers present by telling 
of Mr. Streeter’s Good Citizens’ Clubs, and how 
their work should dovetail with all that the Pro- 
gressives were working for in their proposed 
playground government. 

Billy expected some demonstration from Jim 
and his followers, but none came ; and the meet- 
ing was dismissed after band and audience had 
joined in “America.” 

The crowning triumph was a surprise; and 
provided by the girls. It was a potato roast on a 
vacant lot across the street from the playground. 
Every one present was invited, the parents being 
especially urged to join the feast. 

The bonfire made both light and cheer that 
were welcome in the cool evening; and the girls 
with very rosy faces poked the ashes with long 
sticks and rolled out bushels and bushels of hot 


144 BILLY TO-MORROW 

potatoes. They had thoughtfully graded them 
as to size, so that the smaller ones were served 
first, though all had as many as they could eat. 
Salt, butter, and sliced ham, with pickles for a 
relish, made a high mark for evening outdoor 
fun. 

The surprise was complete. Even the oppo- 
sition could find no chance to gibe. 

“The girls take the cake but we get the po- 
tato!” shouted Walter Buckman. “Three 
cheers for the potato roast!” he proposed with a 
heartiness that showed him an adroit politician. 
They were given with vigor. And the band 
played again, and they dispersed. 

Billy felt well pleased with the evening, till at 
the very last of the frolic, when he stepped into 
the edge of the crowd, he caught a low sentence 
spoken with incautious clearness. “ Oh, yes, 
they are hollering to-night, but we Ve got the 
jump on them. The Kid is laying low.” 

The words troubled him all the way home. 
And Erminie had not been there as he had 
hoped. He did not agree with her that she 
should keep aloof from the school activities; it 
was like acknowledging a wrong that did not 
exist. 


STANDS THE TEST 


145 

But he was tired, and too young and normal 
to lie awake long over any anxieties — save those 
“Betsey kicked in for,” and he “hit the hay 
with eyes already shut,” he told his mother the 
next morning. 


CHAPTER IX 


FACE TO THE SKY 


HE next evening Billy was busy with 



* preparations for starting at six o’clock in 
the morning on the scout for which he was patrol 
leader. Although it would last only two days 
he had been a little uncertain about going, since 
the end of the school year with its many duties 
and activities was so near; but the day before he 
had learned that he would have to take but one 
examination, his high standing excusing him 
from the other “exams.” And now that he 
would not be able to take any of the long, sum- 
mer scouts, he could not resist this last chance 
for the tramps he loved. 

A little before nine over the telephone came 
Bess’s voice. 

“Hello, Queen of Sheba! That was a great 
gift you brought us last night from your domain 
in the south.” 


146 


BILLY TO-MORROW 147 

“ I only planned it; and like the queen of old, 
I didn’t do it for nothing; I crave a boon.” 

“ Say on. I ’m no Solomon, but you shall 
have your desire if I can grant it.” Billy 
laughed and waved an imaginary sceptre, for- 
getting that Bess could not see him. 

“ It’s not so difficult. May Nell has just tele- 
phoned that two of her classmates arrived before 
dinner time on their way East, and she wants 
you and me to come over.” 

“Gee whiz! It’s late to spring your com- 
mand.” 

“Not five seconds since I received mine. 
They’ve been motoring all the evening.” 

“And I’m — not — dressed to meet — ” 

“ Billy To-morrow! When did you begin to 
cogitate about apparel?” 

“ It’s different — ” 

“No more. The Queen commands. Come 
over right away, and father will set us down, — 
the machine is at the door. I won’t be a minute.” 

Bess’s home was only a block away, and her 
“minute” only five, yet in that short time Dr. 
Carter had a call in another direction, and the 
two young people had to take a trolley car. This 


148 BILLY TO-MORROW 

was an opportunity Bess had desired, and she 
improved it at once. 

“ Billy, I want you to tell me why you did n’t 
ask May Nell to go with you to the picnic in- 
stead of Erminie.” 

“May Nell isn’t a pupil of Fifth Avenue 
High.” 

“That makes no difference. A lot of the Jun- 
iors brought friends. For that matter what was 
Mumps doing there? If I had known you 
wouldn’t ask her, I should have taken her.” 

Billy did not reply. For once Bess could not 
understand him, and was distressed. He was the 
playmate of her lifetime, the one boy comrade 
she had treated as frankly as a brother. But now 
she realized he had interests apart from hers, 
cared no longer for things she could share; and 
the knowledge hurt her. 

“And then that Erminie Fisher! She’s no 
more to be compared with May Nell than — ” 

“Go easy, Bess. You saw that Miss Fisher 
went with me, didn’t you?” There was a look 
in his eye, a tone in his voice that chilled her, 
that added to her feeling of distance from him. 

She glanced up almost shyly. “Then do 


STANDS THE TEST 


149 

you wish it to be ‘ Mr. Bennett ’ and ‘ Miss Car- 
ter ’ after this? ” 

“ Oh, piffles, Bess ! You ’re always to the good. 
The reason I said that is because it makes me 
mad to hear every one say mean things of Er- 
minie. She’s a lot better than — ” He did not 
finish. An uncomfortable memory of her self- 
revelation during the night on the island told 
him why girls like Bess shunned her. But what 
she had said of her mother also came to him, 
and what he knew of her father. How could she 
be the sort of girl Bess -was, whose parents were 
not only loving, but wise? 

“Well, there must be something good about 
her, Billy, when you like her. But I can’t see 
how you can neglect May Nell for her.” 

“ I don’t neglect May Nell. But I am no 
J. Pierpont; I ’ve got my living to earn. Do 
you suppose May Nell will want me ringing her 
door-bell after I don overalls and grease?” 

“Will Erminie?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Then she ’s dififerent from what I think. But 
anyway you won’t do that. You ’ll do something 
splendid; something with your brains; or you’ll 


ISO BILLY TO-MORROW 

go out into the mountains or desert and juggle 
old lady Nature, and — ” 

“And she’ll beat me to it — juggling. Bess, 
you ’ll soon be going by shy of a nod to me your- 
self. I ’m going to work, just plain digging 
with no frills on it.” 

“Billy!” 

They were at their destination with no chance 
for pursuing the subject. 

Billy was not usually self-conscious. Before 
his experience with Erminie he would have 
entered Mr. Smith’s elegant parlor as easily, 
would have met the strange girls who were larger 
and older than May Nell, as unabashed as if he 
had been reared in luxury. But now he felt out 
of place. He was beginning to note social dif- 
ferences; to realize that daughters of very rich 
men are reared to a luxurious scale of life; that 
they cannot understand poverty, or even simple 
comfort. He was seeing that no matter how 
willing they may think themselves to endure 
poverty with the loved man, they are totally un- 
fit; and their failure is not their blame. 

Something of this made him awkward and 
silent, while the four girls together with Regi- 


STANDS THE TEST 


151 

nald Steele, Redtop, and Sis Jones, chattered 
and laughed and joked, till Billy began to wish 
he had not come. 

May Nell did not know of the changes com- 
ing to him. She attributed his different attitude 
toward her entirely to the fact that she was too 
small and young to interest him. But he was 
her guest, and courtesy as well as pride deter- 
mined her to compel him to unbend. She left 
the others, and on a quickly invented pretext 
drew him to the farther end of the large room. 

“ Billy, is it true, as Bess says, that you have 
given up your part in the Fifth Avenue High 
play?” 

“Yes.” 

“Oh, Billy, why? When you wrote it, too.” 

“No, no! Who told you that? Three of us 
wrote it; that is, we thought out the stuff, and 
Mr. Streeter helped us put it in shape.” 

“ But he told father the ideas were all yours, 
and that you were very clever.” 

“ I guess I ’ll have to hand ‘ Pop ’ Streeter 
a nickel.” 

The half cynical note in Billy’s laugh did not 
escape her keen ear; and though she could not 


152 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


have told why, it hurt her. “You bad boy! He 
meant every word of it. Tell me about it.” 

“ It is n’t much. Just a picture of Washington 
life as I thought it would be if we did all the 
things with Nature we might do. Just imagina- 
tion.” 

‘‘‘'Just imagination makes the whole world, 
Billy.” 

“That’s what we think when we’re children, 
but I guess when we get out with the cold facts 
we’ll find imagination doesn’t fill the dinner 
pail.” 

“Billy, imagination makes everything! It 
builds the world. Why, when God himself 
looked into the void did n’t He have to imagine 
a world before He could speak the fiery word 
that created it? ” 

“That’s — that’s a pretty big thought, isn’t 
it?” Billy answered slowly, overmastered by 
her eagerness. 

“And, Billy, you used to believe in it so thor- 
oughly. Don’t you any more ? ” 

“ Do you?” 

“Yes, yes! I’ll have to die when I don’t be- 
lieve in it.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


153 


“ Don’t say that,” 

“But it’s true, Billy Boy!” She had not 
called him so since the days in Vina when she 
was a waif and the Bennett home her refuge. 
The affectionate child-name touched him, 
bridged the distance between them. 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” he hesitated, “ imagina- 
tion may be a divine privilege; but for mere 
man, — too much dreaming makes him discon- 
tented. I think when one must earn one’s bread 
and butter the straight fact is better.” 

“Boy, boy! Nothing but slavery and plod- 
ding comes of such a feeling. You’re holding 
your head down when you should look up, face 
to the sky.” 

“ I guess if one were making chairs for a liv- 
ing, he ’d have to look down.” 

“ I guess if he had n’t looked up he ’d never 
have had the idea of a chair for a pattern. Oh, 
you’re no sheep, Billy, You could n’t hold your 
nose to the ground! You’ve got to look up, or 
you’ll die.” 

The others interrupted, calling, for songs, lit- 
tle French songs that May Nell sang captivat- 
ingly. And, after that they, had college songs. 


154 BILLY TO-MORROW 

and a rollicking time. Billy joined, yet with his 
voice only; his thoughts were lifted to the realm 
his soul always reached when with May Nell. 

Mr. Smith came in, bringing with him a gust 
of the big out-of-doors; as if his swift flight in 
his great motor did not stop at the door. He 
was a man who drew all to him. Children and 
dogs, men and women, rich and poor. He 
seemed to have a wealth of power and substance 
that sufficed for a cityful. And he was a provi- 
dence to more of the needy than any but himself 
knew. 

He greeted the young people breezily, uncon- 
sciously giving the feeling for the moment that 
their presence was the one thing needful to make 
him happy, and left the room taking Billy with 
him. 

“Sorry to interrupt pleasure, my boy; but 
since you’re determined to become a business 
man, you will find that pleasure has no rights 
that business is bound to respect. I want to 
speak to you.” 

After preliminary explanations Mr. Smith 
took Billy into his confidence in a remarkable 
way. “ I have a piece of work that you may be 


STANDS THE TEST 


155 

able to do for me, that’s beyond your years. If 
you fail I shall not blame you,^ — others have 
failed before you. Here is the situation : That 
interurban line I’m building, the Washington 
Railway line between the city front and Tum- 
wah, is a small matter in itself, but it is the key 
to a big situation. 

“ We have pushed our bill through the Legis- 
lature, allowing the canal between the two big 
lakes, and we are going to change that little 
Tum-wah Valley into a great city with a pay- 
roll of thousands of men. We’ll dredge the 
small river right to the falls, make our own 
power, and load our own ships, — while they 
clean off the barnacles in fresh water, — load 
them for the world’s ports. In a few years the 
plant will be worth ten or fifteen millions.” 

Billy gasped in astonishment. The narrow 
little valley along the Tum-wah Creek was 
within the city limits, yet it showed nothing now 
but the vegetable gardens of the Italian colony, 
sordid little huts, dirty children, and the rickety 
old electric line where dirty cars went bumping 
along on an elastic schedule that got people to 
town along in the forenoon, and home sometime 


156 BILLY TO-MORROW 

in the evening. This seemed as distant from 
Mr. Smith’s fifteen-million dollar dream as is 
heaven from a very dirty earth. 

Something of this Billy ventured to express. 

“ The only heaven we have is right here. If it 
isn’t clean, it’s up to us to make it so. And one 
thing sure: it will never be any bigger or any 
cleaner than we imagine it to be.” 

The boy thought of May Nell. This was off 
the same pattern of life as hers. As if in answer 
to his thought, Mr. Smith went on. 

“Business is merely realized dreams; pre- 
ferred stock in imagination. But it takes sweat 
to realize on them. And it’s your sweat, boy, 
that I am asking. The people who own that old 
teetering string they call the Tum-wah Railroad 
are down on me because I ’m paralleling them. 
They will give me all the trouble they can, — 
they ’ve served one injunction, but it did n’t stick. 
I have men watching them, but they suspect 
these men. You see they are stirring up those 
Italians to believe that as soon as I get my busi- 
ness started I will take their lands from them.” 

“You’ll have to have them, won’t you?” 
Billy questioned as the other paused ; Billy’s 


STANDS THE TEST 


157 

vision had run forward to the teeming city Mr. 
Smith had prophesied. 

“Surely. And those Italians will get more 
for their land than they can make in raising 
vegetables all their lives. But of course I ’m 
not advertising that now; and the other concern 
is, I have reason to believe, making the Dagos 
think I shall steal them out of their homes. 
What I want of you is to keep on the lookout, 
let me know things before they happen. Go to 
work with the other laborers, run errands, keep 
your ears open, your mouth shut, and look as 
stupid as you can. Will you do it?” 

“ I ’ll try, sir. It won’t be very hard, that last.” 

“Say! Stop that! And that ‘sir’ business. 
Who taught you that?” 

“ That ’s the way we address the Scoutmaster; 
and — and my father was a soldier of the Civil 
War.” 

Mr. Smith softened. “And made a record to 
be proud of; I’ve heard it from your mother. 
But here’s the situation, Billy: You’re begin- 
ning at the bottom ; but if you are to be useful to 
me you must have a definite power of your own ; 
you must compel. It’s in you; and while you 


158 BILLY TO-MORROW 

must adopt a stolid exterior in this first job, 
when you come in contact with my men, when 
you are delivering my orders, you must charge 
them with enough powder of your own to make 
them carry. See?” 

Billy thrilled with the prescience of future 
force, “I think I see what you mean, Mr. 
Smith. I shall try not to disappoint you; 
though — ” A sudden thought of Erminie in- 
truded itself, — what would this man of great af- 
fairs say if he knew that a wife, and the support 
of a home, would soon be the burden that he, a 
mere boy, would have to add to the difficult serv- 
ice Mr. Smith was asking. 

“Out with it! Better thrash out all the ‘ifs,’ 
and ‘ thoughs ’ right now. But I don’t allow 
those words a place in my vocabulary.” 

“Then I won’t!” Billy brought out the words 
with a snap. 

“Well said, my boy! That’s the soldier’s 
way. But remember this : While I get my busi- 
ness done, done at any cost, — if one man can’t 
do it another must; yet I know when a thing 
proves impossible. I don’t expect the impos- 
sible.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


159 


He gave Billy a reassuring clasp of the hand, 
and a look that determined the boy to “make 
good if any chap going could,” and bade him 
good-night. 

Billy did not know how long he had been 
away from the drawing-room till he went in and 
found the others going, and Bess already hatted. 

“ I began to think it all a dream that one Billy 
To-morrow brought me here this evening,” she 
chaffed. 

“No dream; he’s arrived.” 

“Yes? So has to-morrow — almost.” 

Billy glanced at the clock. The chimes for 
eleven-thirty had already rung. 

They laughed and “jollied,” delaying their 
departure with joyous nothings. Both Bess 
and May Nell felt a subtle change in Billy; he 
was not the same boy that had entered there so 
shortly before. 

Thus did Mr. Smith galvanize to unsuspected 
power all who came into his presence. Billy 
went home lifted, ready to meet any future. 


CHAPTER X 


THE SCOUT 


ONG before the alarm clock buzzed the ris- 



-L/ ing hour, Billy was awake. He hopped 
out and hurried with his dressing, watching the 
sunrise meanwhile with some anxiety. It 
seemed more golden and opalescent than usual ; 
or was it only because it was some time since he 
had seen it? Such a fine beginning was apt to 
end in rain, he remembered a little impatiently. 

He was at the meeting-place before time, as 
were the five other eager ones. Two days! So 
short a time in which to win honors! Three pa- 
trols had failed to find the flag so cunningly 
hidden by Scoutmaster Streeter to test the troops. 
The Skwis-kwises (squirrels) had tried, the 
Chetwoots, and Billy’s troop, the Olympics. 
This was a joint patrol, and the honor of being 
its leader Billy had long coveted. 

They looked quite smart when they started 
off, in their khaki uniforms and their scouts’ hats 


i6o 


BILLY TO-MORROW i6i 


all at precisely the same angle with chin-straps 
resting jauntily on the tip of the chin. Billy 
carried the banner of his own troop, the design 
being a snowy mountain with a jagged crest, a 
picture of old Olympus himself; not the classic 
mountain, but the Sentinel of the Pacific. 

Their work was definite. They were to take 
the trolley line to the northeast city terminal, 
going and coming; from there cover at least fif- 
teen miles on foot in the two days, whether they 
found the flag or not. Mr. Streeter said if they 
could only read his plain signs they could not 
miss it; but so far the patrols had failed. 

Besides finding the flag each was to fulfil the 
rule of one kind act each day; to report some 
fact of the woods-life not before recorded in the 
annals of the city troops, or some new deed ; and 
to stop one hour on Sunday for exercises of their 
own devising that should take the place of 
church. To accomplish this most of the circum- 
stances would have to be in their favor. Billy 
hoped the weather would be one. 

The start included breakfast which they took 
at an early restaurant, that their knapsacks 


1 62 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


might not weigh an unnecessary ounce. They 
set of¥ northward from the railroad terminus, 
following the beautiful boulevard as long as its 
direction was right, then a country road for a 
mile or so, which they left at a given point for 
the trails where their real hunt began. 

Billy divided the patrol into three squads, 
Hugh of the Skwis-kwises had Mumps from 
the Chetwoots for his partner; Redtop was as- 
signed with “Bump” Parker; and Billy took 
Bob Brown. He was a tenderfoot. So was 
Hugh, though one of the cleverest and most 
observant of all the scouts ; but he was doomed 
to his class till time should bring around his 
twelfth birthday, when he would be eligible to 
all the scout honors he could win. 

“We’ll search the trails for three hours,” 
Billy decided, “ and meet at the south end of 
Lake Mow-itsh on the main road.” He studied 
his map, a copy of which each one carried. 
“Ten points for the first squad to arrive, and ten 
points for any new bird seen in the forest and 
rightly named.” 

“That’s easy!” Bob exclaimed. He was a re- 
cent arrival from the Middle States. 


STANDS THE TEST 163 

“You won’t think so after you’ve hiked 
a while; the forest is too dense for many birds, 
— not enough food for them.” 

“ And now for the routes ; draw straws.” 

Billy and Bob drew the longest route, which 
pleased the patrol leader. “Now’s your chance 
to show your grit, kid; your legs are not as long 
as mine.” 

“But they’re as good, I bet,” Bob returned 
spunkily. And they separated. 

The woods here were dense and heavy with 
rain of the night before. The fickle sun disap- 
peared, and the stillness of the forest settled 
upon them. Unconsciously Billy and Bob 
lowered their voices, doing very little talking, 
for Billy’s eyes and mind were on the trail in- 
tently watching for the slightest sign. At each 
division of the trail he searched so long and care- 
fully that Bob was impatient. 

“We’ll lose all chance of winning in at the 
lake.” 

“ If we find the flag that will be the biggest 
win of all, and I ’m not going to lose one pointer 
if I can help it.” Billy went down on his knees 
to look at a track. 


i 64 billy to-morrow 

“What did you expect to find?” 

“ I did n’t know; but it ’s up to a scout to pass 
nothing by in the woods. Look for the arrow 
that points the way, you tenderfoot. It may be 
only a straight shaft or it may have a square at 
the feathered end.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“ A letter three paces from the arrow.” 

“What color will the arrow be?” 

“Gee whiz! Did you think it would be 
bought from a store? Diamond-tipped, maybe? 
It’ll be any old stick touched up with a jack 
knife perhaps. You’ve got a lot to learn, kid.” 

“What direction from the arrow would the 
letter be?” 

“What do you think?” 

“The way the arrow points?” 

“Right — What have you found?” Billy 
crossed a small open spot to where the other boy 
was bending over two crossed sticks at the foot 
of a tree. “Good! You’re not blind as you 
might be. That’s luck — finding that. We’re 
on the wrong lead.” 

“How do you know? Two sticks might fall 
that way.” 


STANDS THE TEST 165 

“But look here! See that crooked line made 
of pieces of bark?” 

“ Yes, but that ’s nothing — Why, it ’s the let- 
ter ‘ S.’ ” 

“That means Mr. Streeter. Around here 
somewhere we ’ll find more signs.” 

They hunted carefully along, leaving their 
own records on tree or ground. Billy explained 
the many ways of marking the way, — smokes, 
wigwagging, shaking the blanket, the semaphore 
code, all of which are practically useless in the 
dense forest, where trees reach higher than could 
any smoke that would be safe. 

“I’ve got it!” Billy shouted presently, and 
blew three blasts on his whistle three times re- 
peated, to herald the finding of an arrow. 

No answer. 

“We’ll have to write our message in bark 
chips, I guess.” Billy selected one large 
smooth piece, placing it directly beside the path, 
with another small round piece on top. 

“What does that say?” 

“ This is the trail,” Billy answered. “ And 
this means “ Go to the right,” he continued, mak- 
ing a similar sign except that he put the small 


i66 BILLY TO-MORROW 


piece at the right of the larger one, and scratched 
a rough “ B ” in the soft forest debris. 

A drizzling rain had begun, and the summer 
forest was dark and very dreary to the plains- 
bred boy. “Golly! I’m glad I’m not alone. 
I ’d be dippy in an hour.” 

“Why?” 

“ Oh, you can’t tell it in words. It’s like hear- 
ing and feeling things in the dark; you could 
swear they were there just where they could 
touch you ; but light a match and you find every 
one of ’em on the hike.” 

“Yes, I know the feeling. You almost think 
these ferns will rise and strangle you. In Cali- 
fornia the forests are more open — ” He stopped 
suddenly. “ Here ’s a blaze I ” He pushed away 
the ferns that almost concealed a square cut in 
the bark of a tree, in the centre of the bared 
space was a pencilled “ S.” “ These ferns have 
done a good job of growing since Pop Streeter 
hid the flag two weeks ago. But it’s his mark 
all right. No wonder the other boys missed it.” 

They pressed on, not minding the rain now 
that the goal seemed near; Billy’s enthusiasm 
warmed the other boy. 


STANDS THE TEST 167 

“It’s funny, ain’t it, how a fool bit of cloth 
can make a fellow work? When we get it, it ’s 
worth nothing.” 

“ Bob, I guess some of the things that seem 
useless are really worth the most.” 

“ But we can’t sell it for anything, we can’t eat 
it, and it won’t pay debts.” 

“Well, how many debts would greenbacks pay 
if the American flag was wiped out? And any- 
way those that do the biggest things seldom do 
get paid in money.” 

“Who, for instance?” 

“The great artists; many of them starved in 
their own day, and now we pay a fortune for one 
piece of their work. And who pays the moth- 
ers? They do most of anybody.” 

Bob was thoughtful. “ Ye-s; I reckon lots of 
mothers get slim pay.” 

The signs became more frequent now. They 
were written in broken twigs, in bunched and 
tied grass, and once in a more open place in 
piled stones. Presently the boys found them- 
selves on the shore of Mow-itsh Lake about two 
miles from the rendezvous. There, in front of 
a great cedar, stood the notched and numbered 


i68 BILLY TO-MORROW 


staff with its well-known device etched with 
knife and ink, — a mountain with a scout and a 
flag on its summit. But the flag they had 
searched for was gone! 

“ I wonder what that means! ” Billy shook the 
water from his hat and gazed in all directions 
for an answer, 

“ Search me. I ’m no more good at knowin’ 
things of this country than if we were in Sa- 
hara.” 

Billy looked at his watch. “ Half an hour to 
get back to the rendezvous ; and then dinner.” 

“Well, filling the hole in my stomach will be 
real pay for this hike; enough for me, whether 
we get any glory or not.” 

Back over their way they went to the main 
trail, with no delays, for Billy had blazed the 
way carefully. 

“ Use your eyes, kid,” he admonished. 
“There are things in the woods besides trees; 
and to-night we’ll have a gab to see how much 
six pairs of eyes have been able to discover.” 

They arrived to find Hugh alone, preparing 
to make a fire. 

“Billy, I’m glad you’ve come. Now you 
can watch me, — see if I work right.” 


STANDS THE TEST 169 

“You’re not going to try it by friction, are 
you? It will take too long.” 

“ No, it won’t. I got fire in six minutes the 
other day by following Mr. Seton’s directions.” 

“That’s all right if you have dry wood and 
the right kind; but it’s been raining.” 

“Just the same I’ve found some fine cedar. 
You watch me.” 

While he drilled out the fine wood-dust Billy 
was busy finding dry bark fibre for tinder; and 
soon a tiny spark appeared, then a little glowing 
coal upon which they placed the bunch of fibre, 
fanning it with their hats till a flame answered, 
and soon they had a blazing fire with its cheer- . 
ing warmth. 

“Gee! I didn’t know it was easy as that.” 
Bob was a trifle contemptuous. 

“ Easy! ” The Fairy rose, rather quickly for a 
fat boy. “ If you think it’s easy you just try it: 
I ’ve been three months learning.” 

“Three months?” 

“Not all the time of course; but every time I 
could get the chance to practise. The directions 
in books are as good as words can tell, but there ’s 
a lot you have to see with your eyes that can’t 
be told.” 


170 BILLY TO-MORROW 


“ Six minutes — that’s fair time. Oh, Billy! 
The flag-stafif ! Where did you find it? Where ’s 
the rest of it?” 

“ That ’s what we want to know ; this is all we 
found. Did you get anything?” 

“This.” Hugh took from his pocket a much 
worn shoe the size to fit a child of seven or eight. 

“Heavens! A lost kid!” 

“A little girl, too.” 

“ How do you know that. Fairy?” 

“See the little buckle business? Boys don’t 
wear that sort.” 

“Where is Mumps?” 

Billy scowled. “That’s against the rules, you 
two being separated.” 

“We aren’t. He’s in earshot.” Hugh sent a 
musical “ hoo-hoo ” into the distance, which was 
immediately answered. 

“Is there water so near?” Bob questioned in- 
credulously, while Hugh went on with his calls, 
singly, in groups, and by spaces. 

“Mumps has four fish, — bass.” 

“ Well, how in jiminy do you know that? ” 

“Oh, it’s a little set of signals we decided be- 
fore he set off.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


171 

“Trust the Fairy for talking by signal; he’s a 
cracker-jack at that,” Billy explained. 

Sydney came up with the fish cleaned for 
broiling; and presently the others came in. It 
had stopped raining, and the sun though not 
shining still warmed and brightened the air. 

Their luncheon was a quick affair of coffee, 
fish, and bread and butter; for they were too ex- 
cited over the “ finds ” to take much time for eat- 
ing. If there was a child lost what better “ kind 
act” could they do than to search for her? Red- 
top and Bump had passed a farmhouse some 
distance back, which was the only hint of human 
life any of them had seen. 

Billy decided to start immediately, and keep 
together till they came to the house. They 
would make that headquarters, to which any one 
finding any trace of the child should report. 

“Perhaps there is no lost child; maybe the 
shoe was just thrown away,” Bump ventured. 

“Who would carry a shoe into a forest to 
throw it away?” Redtop jeered. 

“ A dog might,” Billy returned, and the others 
laughed at Redtop. 

They broke camp and hurried on, spurred. by 


172 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


the apparent seriousness of the situation. The 
quest of the flag lost all zest beside the mere 
possibility of human life in danger. 

Half a mile on, or more, they came to a com- 
fortable-looking house where a woman was 
washing on the back porch. To their question 
she shook her head. No child was missing. She 
had one, and she had gone home from school the 
night before with her cousin to stay over Sun- 
day. But when Hugh showed her the little shoe 
she caught at it and turned pale. 

“That’s hers. Where did you find it?” 

Hugh told her, and she became hysterical 
with fear. The men of the place were away on 
business, and the boys had to plan their search 
without help. Billy managed to learn from the 
excited mother the name fo the cousin’s family 
and the direction of their ranch, where he sent 
Redtop and Bump to find out if the little girl 
had left, and when ; and to arouse the few neigh- 
bors to the hunt. 

Billy took the other three with him and set 
out to the spot where Fairy had found the shoe. 
This was near the lake shore; and as they noted 
the steep banks and how the green things grew 


STANDS THE TEST 


173 

close down and hung into the water, they chilled 
with apprehension. 

Carefully they worked through the afternoon, 
peering into every opening, following every 
slightest path, calling every few minutes that 
they might not lose one another, and with the 
added hope that a little voice might answer. 

Later they came upon the neighbors and 
learned that the child had left the cousin’s home 
early that morning unseen by any one. There 
were not many hunters, less than a dozen, in- 
cluding two or three school-boys. Three or four 
small ranches were all the settlements on that 
side of the lake; the few children rowed across 
the narrow inlet to the school on the other side. 

A fear that the scouts had not voiced was yet 
present in every heart, — the wild creatures, cats 
and bears. Billy asked of this, under his breath 
that the smaller boys might not hear. The 
answer was reassuring. There was such a ful- 
ness of wild young growth that animals would 
not be hungry, and a little thing that did not 
attack them was comparatively safe. 

The men had taken out several dogs ; but they 
were untrained, and the rain had washed away 


174 billy to-morrow 

what scent there might have been. They did 
nothing but start up small game and go baying 
off on their own quest. 

Till nearly dark they all beat the woods but 
with no success. The boys were worn. The 
men believed the search useless and discussed 
among themselves the advisability of dragging 
the lake. However when dark fell they ate 
hastily of food brought to them by some of the 
women, and set out again with lanterns into the 
woods. 

Billy was anxious. He was responsible for 
getting his scouts home not only safe but in good 
order; and he believed that to continue the hunt 
without rest would utterly exhaust them. 
Though his own desire was to push on, and on, 
through the night and the awful forest till it was 
compelled to give up its secret, he ordered them 
to make camp. 


CHAPTER XI 


WHOSE GLORY WAS REDRESSING HUMAN 
WRONG ” 

B illy kept every one busy till an excellent 
meal was ready. It would surprise those 
unaccustomed to camping to know that they had 
hot potatoes, broiled bacon, coffee, and hot ban- 
nocks — “sinkers,” the boys called them. Yet 
they had neither kettles nor dishes, except one 
aluminum pail, and each scout had his collapsi- 
ble cup. 

The potatoes were roasted in the ashes, the 
bannocks were mixed in the pail, patted into 
thin, wafer-like biscuits, spread on a clean board 
Billy had begged at the farmhouse, and put to 
bake before the fire. The pail was then washed 
and used for the coffee. The bacon was toasted, 
each man for himself, his slice pinched in the 
split end of a green stick. 

Butter, jam, crackers, and canned milk added 
the “class” to the meal, for which Billy care- 
175 


176 BILLY TO-MORROW 


fully measured out the rations, that they might 
not encroach upon to-morrow’s supplies, for 
there would be no time for fishing: a more se- 
rious business claimed them. 

Around the camp-fire they sat a while, toast- 
ing and drying, for the night was damp and 
chilly. Billy insisted on some speech, song, or 
story from each one, knowing that would help 
to banish the gloom. He called for opinions or 
stories regarding the Scouts’ motto, “ Be pre- 
pared,” showing how it might become more of a 
talisman to them, how it could become a con- 
tinual incentive to effort. 

“You never know when knowledge is going 
to come handy,” Redtop said. “That reminds 
me of a story of the desert country over east of 
the mountains, where the ranches are fenced with 
barbed wire. They run their telephones by 
means of them now ; but some years back before 
any one had thought of that, some miscreants 
planned to rob a place, and cut the telephone 
wires that their escape might be easy. A bright 
boy discovered the cut, suspected some deviltry 
was up, and connected up the wires by tying the 
cut ends to the fence. The robbers did not dis- 


STANDS THE TEST 


177 

cover the trap, and when they went to loot the 
house they met the police, and were caught.” 

“A good story,” Billy declared; “I wonder 
how that boy saved himself a shock?” 

“Rubber would do it,” Redtop answered; 
“and glass, though that would be hard to 
manage.” 

“The shock from telephone wires wouldn’t 
be much,” Mumps said. 

Billy called for a 'Count of things each had 
noticed in the woods that day, Redtop to keep 
the count, and was pleased when Hugh outdid 
all in original observation. 

“ Some of those things have never been re- 
ported in any book that I ever read,” Bump 
declared. “ You ’ll make a boss scout. Fairy. I 
never can get the hang of making fire the way 
you do,” 

“If I live long enough,” Hugh gloomed; 
“I’m big as sixteen and not twelve yet; just a 
baby.” 

“ No matter, kid. Put your thinker to some- 
thing else. Who ’s trying for the city flag de- 
sign? September will be here before you know 
it.” 


178 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“Have you done anything, Billy?” 

“ I Ve an idea coming, but I haven’t chased it 
down to paper yet.” 

“Are you going to try, Redtop?” Hugh’s 
thin little voice finished in a low rumble that 
made the rest laugh. 

“Me? I couldn’t draw a flag-pole that any- 
body ’d recognize unless it was labelled.” 

Billy tried hard to keep the talk brisk, yet his 
own mind wandered. He was thinking unusual 
thoughts. Something in the lush fragrant 
woods, in the silence and the leaping flames, — or 
was it the feeling that other denizens might be 
prowling near? — recalled “The Idyls of the 
King,” that king 

Whose glory was redressing human wrong.” 

All his boyhood Billy had wished he might 
have lived in the olden days of chivalry, when 
men gave their lives for the succor of the weak 
and wronged. The glitter and splendor of court 
and tournament described in Tennyson’s ringing, 
singing lines, thrilled him; stirred a passion that 
he hid within the silence of his own heart, since 
he found few that understood the feeling. Hugh 


STANDS THE TEST 


179 


and May Nell were the only ones of his friends 
who felt as he did about the ideals of chivalry, 
Erminie either looked at him in wonder or 
laughed at him for a visionary. 

But to-night the world-old stories of high ad- 
venture, where all was risked for love of human- 
ity, came to him with new force, culminating in 
a sudden vision of what the tragedy on Calvary 
meant. There could have been no good deed 
done in the past that was not possible to-day; 
and perhaps this very quest for the little child 
was as worthy as the romantic deeds of Arthur’s 
knights. 

Suddenly Billy straightened, and began to tell 
the story of that famed Round Table where sat 
the knights of the king, Launcelot, Sir Perci- 
vale; Merlin, the Magician, and his evil fate, 
Vivien. He told of the pitiful Elaine, the beau- 
tiful queen, and how she wrecked Arthur’s 
court, and of Sir Galahad and his search for the 
Holy Grail. 

At first the boys were not interested; but Billy’s 
voice deepened with earnestness ; and the fire de- 
clined, leaving only its glowing heart changing, 
gleaming, and paling like a monster opal, while 


i8o BILLY TO-MORROW 


the silent forest drew closer, seemed to reach 
down and clasp them, till almost they felt them- 
selves transported to those 

“ Great tracts of wilderness 
Wherein the beast was ever more and more, 

But man was less and less till Arthur came.” 

“ Fellows, every age needs its King Arthur 
and a Round Table of knights who think more 
of redressing human wrong and abating human 
suffering than they think of their own bodies 
and meat and drink. That is what our Congress 
at Washington should be. I wish it might be- 
come the fashion to go to Congress for what men 
could put into the nation, not for what they can 
get out of it.” 

He rose and reached his hand up toward the 
stars, showing bright in the small open space 
above the tall trees. “Think of it! Just to do 
nothing but feed oneself, earn, spend, sleep, 
and die, — an ox does that. Yet most of us think 
that if we do that and keep out of jail we do 
enough; we are men.” 

“Just what are you driving at, Billy?” Bump 
yawned. 

Billy, out of patience, went over and shook 


STANDS THE TEST i8i 

him. “Driving at? I’m thinking of the 
chances I waste every day while I moon over the 
great things men used to do : that if we can only 
find that child and I can get back to work, I ’ll 
dig! I ’ll ‘ be prepared ’ even if my sword is a 
shovel instead of Excalibur. I ’m going to — ” 

He stopped abruptly. “It’s time to turn in, 
boys,” he said quietly, turning away, ashamed of 
having shown his emotion. 

Rubber blankets over boughs were all “ to the 
good.” They spent little time in chaff or 
“rough-house,” and in a few minutes all but 
Billy were asleep. He could not rest. The day 
had been too exciting to give room to any of his 
own affairs; but now Erminie intruded. 

Why had she not come out the night of the 
playground rally? He knew her contention that 
she should keep out of sight, yet she had almost 
promised. Had her father learned of their night 
on the island? He had thrashed this over be- 
fore, but in each quiet moment the question 
came again insistently. He tossed and turned 
wondering that he should notice that the bed was 
hard, that his blanket was short, that the others 
snored ; usually these things were as nothing. 


i 82 billy to-morrow 


But at last he slept. 

They were astir at five o’clock, and breakfast 
was soon over, when they were off again. They 
stopped first at the farmhouse to hear the latest 
word, which was not encouraging. The men 
had been out all night and found no trace; now 
they were starting for the lake where nearly all 
felt the search would end. 

Not Billy. He decided that, if the lake 
proved the child’s fate, it mattered little when 
she was found. Yet she might be in the forest; 
and with the endorsement of the others he set 
about a still more careful hunt in the woods. 

Through the forenoon, which was clear and 
warm, they travelled by twos, taking many by- 
paths they had neglected the day before. The 
going was hard, and their faces were scratched 
by thorn and brier. They climbed logs and 
delved into many a hidden hole where the child 
never would have thought of going, unless she 
had crept there in fear. Billy kept the details 
well abreast of one another by whistles and calls, 
and as fast as possible made their general direc- 
tion toward home, for soon they must give up 
the search and be on their way. 


STANDS THE TEST 183 

Near noon a shout from Bob who was follow- 
ing up one side of a huge fallen tree halted Billy 
on the other side. “ I Ve found the flag! ” 

Billy ran around the towering root of the 
trunk. It was true, but such a flag! Creased, 
torn, and soiled, it was hardly recognizable. 
Where it lay, the ferns and wild grasses were 
trampled as if some light thing had walked 
about, perhaps lain there. 

A whistle said imperatively “Come!” and 
Billy, marking the spot and the way, followed 
the call to find Mumps and Hugh excited over 
a little black stocking. That, too, was torn; 
and a dark spot on it showed where briers had 
pierced the tender skii 

“We’re warm!” Billy exclaimed. “We’ll 
find her near here, or — ” He did not finish; 
but each knew what Billy did not voice. They 
forgot their own fatigue; their scratched hands 
and weary feet. A fresh strength invaded them 
as a tide from some unknown sea of life. They 
divided again, travelling faster and in parallel 
lines following the direction pointed by flag and 
stocking. 

It was perhaps half an hour later when Billy’s 


i 84 billy to-morrow 

quick eye detected a splotch of white protrud- 
ing from under a fallen log ahead. He called 
to Robert and ran forward, his heart beating 
with mingled fear and hope of what he should 
see. His feet were lead and would not move, he 
thought; yet he was running fast, catching in 
tangles, recovering, jumping logs, fighting each 
clinging, hindering vine and shrub. 

When he reached the place he saw what he 
sought — the child. One small scratched bare 
foot lay out from under the torn white frock, 
beside the other, hardly more protected by its 
torn shoe and stocking. With a sick fear Billy 
bent to look upon the face hidden by the droop- 
ing ferns. 

But when he looked, he saw a sweet little face, 
stained with tears but unmarred by claw or tooth, 
the lips red with life, her breath coming evenly. 

At once he turned and gave a great shout 
which Robert echoed; and both blew their 
whistles. Instantly came replies. The sudden 
noise woke the child in fright, and she screamed 
and cowered closer; yet in a second she hushed, 
and peered cautiously out from her leafy nook. 

“ Don’t be afraid, little kid,” Billy said softly. 


STANDS THE TEST 


185 

not touching her lest that might add to her fear. 
“You ’re lost and we ’ve been hunting you a long 
time. Come out. Are you hungry? ” 

Between each sentence he paused, thinking 
she might be dazed with wandering, loneliness, 
and sleep, and could not at once realize that 
they meant her no harm. “ Don’t be afraid, lit- 
tle girl,” he said again. “We’ve come to take 
you home.” 

She sat up and looked the boys over with calm, 
questioning eyes that measured them well before 
she spoke. “Are you a gypsy man? Because 
if you are, you won’t take me home, but to your 
gypsy country.” 

“Not so bad as that, baby; just American 
boys going to take you to your mama.” 

“ I ’m not a baby,” she gravely replied, creep- 
ing out of her nest, surprisingly free from stiff- 
ness. “ I ’m seven, and my name is Signa.” But 
when she put her weight on her brier-torn foot 
she winced and cried out with pain. 

Billy opened his knapsack and offered her 
some crackers and cheese. “Here! Eat this. 
You must be awfully hungry.” 

She took the food, but ate slowly, at which the 


i86 BILLY TO-MORROW 

boys marvelled; they had expected to see her 
bolt it. 

“ Have you had anything to eat since you ran 
away?” 

“ I did n’t run away, I walked. And I had 
my dinner pail, and in it was some lunch I did n’t 
eat at school. I tooked some cookies from my 
Aunt Felda’s pantry too.” 

The others came tearing up, expectant, ex- 
cited, puffing with their speed. After so much 
walking an extra run told on them; but the re- 
lief of finding the little girl safe and well was 
as good as rest. 

Billy ordered them back to a more open space 
to make camp, carrying the little girl himself. 
In a jiffy they prepared their light meal, dis- 
pensing with coffee for no one felt like taking 
time to hunt for water. 

While Billy was carrying the child to a place 
of honor at their luncheon she spoke up shyly. 
“ I ’spect my face is dirty — I did n’t wash this 
morning; I couldn’t find any water.” 

“ I ’ll fix you, kid.” He put her down, took 
from one of his pockets a clean handkerchief, 
searched a moment till he found a wide, cup- 


STANDS THE TEST 187 

shaped leaf full of rain water in which he wet 
a part of the handkerchief, and went back to 
her. “ Here you are, a whole toilet outfit, little 
kid.” 

“No, I can do it myself,” she said as he began 
gently to wipe the smudged little face. She 
caught the cloth and used it vigorously. 

“Weren’t you afraid?” Redtop asked when 
the first, busy part of the meal was over. 

“Of what?” she asked nonchalantly. 

“Of everything: bears, the dark, and — ” 

“Dark doesn’t hurt;, it isn’t anything. And 
bears — we don’t have much of them. For a 
minute I was afraid of — of him.” She pointed 
to Billy. “ I thought he was a gypsy man, and 
they are the baddest, they are.” 

“She’s plucky for a girl kid,” Bump volun- 
teered. 

“ She ’s plucky for anybody, boy or man. It’s 
no sociable experience to be lost overnight in 
these woods, I bet.” Mumps looked gloomily 
into the dark depths in front of them. 

Some laughed, and the reaction from the long 
strain brought relief; but Billy interrupted it. 

“ Fellows, our scout has been different from 


i88 BILLY TO-MORROW 


the plan, but we have found what we came after, 
the flag and — the good deed.” 

“Oh, is that a flag? Where’s the red, white, 
and blue? I was cold and I wore it.” The child 
reached up where it hung and traced the design 
with her finger, the while rubbing one brier- 
scratched leg with her calloused little bare foot. 

Billy explained the flag to her, and then to 
the others said, “We must start if we are to 
reach home to-night. There ’s no time for Sun- 
day exercises, but what do you say to a song?” 

“All right! Good enough!” they shouted. 

“What shall it be?” 

They answered one thing and another, but the 
girl piped, “‘My Country, ’tis of Thee’; I can 
sing that.” 

So there in the woods they sang the hymn, not 
so inappropriate as it might seem, since a coun- 
try is its people, and these young citizens had 
performed a noble service. There was a note of 
thanksgiving in the voices swelling there in the 
forest stillness, the child’s thin treble standing 
out clear from the rest. 

The mother was beyond speech when they 
brought her baby to her; but the father, who had 


STANDS THE TEST 189 

been summoned from the city and had spent the 
night in vain search, coming now from his dis- 
mal task on the lake, had more than words for 
two. He praised the boys, begged them to stop 
all night, tried to reward them, and failing that, 
ordered his wife to cook the best dinner “ ever 
spread in the shack.” 

With difficulty Billy explained that they had 
no time to wait for dinners, that they must get 
back to the city by sunset. 

The Swedish farmer frowned at this speech, 
and tried to dissuade them. Failing that, he 
made a welcome proposition. “ I have a good 
team and carriage, my neighbor also; we’ll 
drive you to town in two hours. To that you 
shall not say no.” 

They were glad to accept this offer, and none 
knew how tired they were till they were jogging 
on their way home. Billy’s pedometer recorded 
forty-one miles. 

They arrived in town with no adventure; and 
after reporting by telephone to Mr. Streeter, 
Billy went home to find his mother keeping din- 
ner warm for him. 

Mrs. Bennett waited on him, and listened to 


190 BILLY TO-MORROW 

as much of his story as he felt like telling; he 
found it hard to repeat from sheer fatigue. 
When he had left the table she handed him a 
note. 

“ Bess brought that to-day, and said you were 
to read it the minute you arrived ; but I thought 
something to eat might prepare you. She 
seemed to think it of great importance.” Mrs. 
Bennett smiled and began to clear the table; but 
Billy, with a prompting he could not under- 
stand, took it to his room to read. 

What he saw in the printed slip, a circular in 
form, banished sleep, fatigue, every emotion but 
anger. 



‘‘Were n’t you afraid?” Redtop asked when the first busy 
part of the meal was over 




* ^ 


t 

b 


« 


I 


t 


I 


* 


/ 



CHAPTER XII 


THE FIGHT 

B illy did not suppose he would sleep that 
night, so disturbing was the matter of the 
little circular; but nature protects youth. In a 
few minutes the words jumbled incoherently and 
lost themselves; and a night of dreamless sleep 
prepared him to meet the day. 

His first waking thought was the circular. 
He caught it up and read it over, growing an- 
grier with each line. 

“A certain lily-necked, high-browed junior found the 
picnic plus one Dark-Eyed Beauty so enthralling that he for- 
got the call of the whistle, and they had a forced sample of 
the simple life for one night in the open. 

“This is what may be expected from the kid-gloved, 
Sunday-school contingent represented by the haughty H. 
They’re all handy with the moral tacked on fore and aft 
to — the other fellow’s story. But when it comes to getting 
away with any little plum, viz,, the D. E. B., they ’re there 
with both feet, and the goods. See? 

“ N. B. All who favor muck-raking the other man in 
public, and the primrose path on the sly, vote the High-brow 
ticket. 


jg2 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


N. B. No* 2. Every man who handles money for clubs 
or societies should be under bond. This means the Fifth 
Avenue High. A word to the wise is sufficient.’* 

Billy was so disturbed by the first item that 
he took little note of the third, though he 
knew it was intended for him. But his con- 
science was clear; he had — A quick fear as- 
sailed him. He had not banked the money on 
Friday! It had been too late. School duties 
pressed that day, and he thought it would be 
perfectly safe in Miss Hartell’s desk in the high- 
school library. How could it be otherwise? 

Yet when he put on his school clothes the key 
to his drawer was missing! In a fever of worry 
he hunted through his belongings, knowing all 
the time that he could not have taken the key 
from his ring. He tried to think back over his 
every movement on Friday afternoon; first, his 
interview after the session closed with Miss Har- 
tell about his essay; next, the meeting of the 
Good Citizens’ Club when they had taken many 
initiation fees. He and Bess had counted the 
money and he had receipted to her for it; and 
last, he had locked it in the drawer, but this 
was after Bess had gone. 


STANDS THE TEST 


193 


Nothing illuminating came to him. A suspi- 
cion instead filled him with indignation: Who 
could write such a paragraph unless he knew 
something to warrant it? Whoever knew that 
was the one who had tampered with the drawer, 
the lock. 

Hardly able to concentrate his mind, Billy 
wrote out his report of the scout for filing, 
brushed and cleaned the flag as well as he could, 
and tried to settle down to study; but the lessons 
dragged. The words meant nothing; his mind 
was held by the disquieting slip, that had nei- 
ther signature, nor slightest mark to show who 
wrote it or who printed it. That was evidence 
of evil intent; and if the school authorities could 
find out its source, they would expel the student 
responsible for it. 

He went to the dining-room, impatient for 
breakfast, and while waiting his sister Edith 
came down with the baby. “ Good-morning 
Billy. Baby is glad you’re at home again.” 

Billy touched the pink cheek, and put his fin- 
ger in the tiny hand that closed softly around it. 
He thought his sister very lovely in her sweet 
dignity of motherhood. 


194 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“William Bennett! Your grandfather made 
your name worth while, my baby, and now Uncle 
Billy is adding honor to it.” She caressed the 
soft cheek. 

“Don’t count on me; I may not add lustre 
even if I do the best I can.” The future loomed 
rather dark to him just then. 

“ Billy, that is all any one can do,” his mother 
said, coming in with Mr. Wright at the moment. 

Breakfast followed, and while they ate, Billy 
recounted the happenings of the scout. 

He went early to school, and barely greeting 
the first comers, hastened to the library. The 
drawer was locked, and no trace of meddling 
appeared. 

Puzzled and worried he went to the west en- 
trance to wait for Erminie. Instead of seeing 
her he was surrounded by friends with voluble 
congratulations; for the morning paper, in large 
type and pictures, featured the adventure of 
little Signa and the part the Scouts had played 
in her rescue. 

Billy wondered how such an account, fairly 
accurate, had been managed, and again his 
desire to do that work burned in him. Yet on 


STANDS THE TEST 


I9S 


inquiry it was simple. The Morning News 
Company kept photographs on hand of every 
important and picturesque spot in the State, and 
the lake was among them. 

Through Mr. Streeter they learned the main 
facts that concerned the boys, and also through 
him obtained pictures of the boys, Billy and 
Redtop; for the Scoutmaster’s den was littered 
with pictures of his admiring boys. 

With all the effusiveness of the greetings, 
Billy divined a reticence, an aloofness, even on 
the part of some who had been his most demon- 
strative friends; and on the appearance of Hec- 
tor he broke away from them to tell his cousin 
of his difficulty. 

“ Perhaps I have a key that will fit the lock; 
those desks are nearly all alike.” Together they 
went to the library, locking the door behind 
them. 

The lock yielded to one of Hector’s keys. 

“There should be over forty dollars there,” 
Billy said, his voice a little shaky. 

“Why, didn’t you bank — ” 

“It’s gone!” Billy threw up his head and 
looked blankly at Hector. 


196 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“When did you put it there?” 

“Last Friday. It was after banking hours 
when the meeting closed.” 

“And Saturday morning you left town. 
Nearly three days the start of you that thief has, 
Billy. I guess you’re in for making good. Can 
I help you?” Hector’s voice was sympathetic. 

“ I may need your help. Did you see that 
dodger?” 

“Yes.” 

“When did it come out? Are there many?” 

“At Buckman’s meeting. It was circulated 
so adroitly that not one of us can tell where it 
came from. It just appeared. Everybody has 
one.” 

“Of course it’s the Kid’s game.” 

“Probably; but it will not be safe to say so. 
He’s too sharp to leave an opening for proof.” 

“Whoever wrote that circular knows where 
that money went to.” 

“ Yes. I wondered what that ‘ treasurer ’ 
squib meant.” 

“ That key was stolen in this building.” 

“What did you do after the meeting Friday 
before you went home? ” 


STANDS THE TEST 


197 


Billy thought. “ I threw my coat over a 
bench while I straightened up the drawer and 
locked, and then went to the lavatory to wash 
my hands. A lot of kids were there, joshing, 
and I may have been gone ten or fifteen min- 
utes.” 

“ Whom did you see, coming or going? ” 

“ Gee! I can’t tell, fifty, I guess.” 

“And you were the last to leave the library?” 

“ Yes, before it was locked.” 

“ It ’s a mystery surely. But I must go. See 
you later.” 

The loss troubled Billy sorely, and the morn- 
ing wore on dully, his books a burden, his recita- 
tions poor. At noon he waited again for Er- 
minie. When he did not see her go out of the 
building as usual, he went upstairs, and watch- 
ing his opportunity at a telephone when no one 
was near, called her up at her home. 

Her mother answered. Erminie was gone, 
Billy could not learn where. Indeed the tremu- 
lous voice at the other end of the wire sounded 
as if the mother herself did not know. Above 
her words and his own he heard her husband’s 
voice swearing, and the curses were coupled 


198 BILLY TO-MORROW 

with Erminie’s name. But of the scraps he 
heard, the one that electrified him was this : “ A1 
Short showed me that paper — ” 

Instantly Billy divined that he meant the cir- 
cular. He was speaking with a third person in 
the next room. “ Don’t you have an idea where 
Erminie — ” 

“ Billy Bennett, Erminie’s whereabouts is 
none of your business. You’ve made her and us 
enough trouble.” 

He dropped the receiver. It was true. He 
was the cause of their trouble ; he had gotten Er- 
minie left at the picnic; he had angered Jim 
Barney, whose threats, Billy believed, had 
frightened Erminie into running away. And 
Billy could not say a word in her defence. She 
had to bear the cruel slur alone. How shameful 
that an innocent accident should be the scourge 
of a girl, perhaps for the whole of her life! 

The afternoon was duller than the morning. 
It was near the end of the year, when the routine 
was somewhat relaxed, and the coming election 
on the morrow caused a buzz and stir, an un^ 
dercurrent of restlessness that swept around and 


STANDS THE TEST 


199 

past Billy unheeded. He sat with his eyes glued 
to his books, trying to think, and failing. 

At the close of the session he met the officers 
of the Good Citizens’ Club and told them of the 
loss of the money. 

Bess, girl-like, jumped to her conclusion. 
“That Jim Barney has something to do with 
it!” 

“Bess! Bess!” Reginald chided; “it’s seri- 
ous — accusing one of stealing with no proof 
against him.” 

“Just the same, I’m sure I’m right.” 

“ It makes no difference who took the money, 
I must make it up.” Billy faced them fearlessly. 
“Boys, and Bess, I know you’ll believe me 
when I say I don’t know a thing about where 
that money is. Yet I ’m all to the bad for being 
so careless about it. I want to do the right 
thing, but I can’t refund it all at once, not — not 
to — ” 

“Of course you can’t, Billy! We’ll make it 
up, and the club need never know. I’ll lend 
you thirty myself, and I’m sure — ” 

“Here, Queen, vou can’t have all the glory; 


200 BILLY TO-MORROW 


the rest of us want to prove good too.” Regi- 
nald shook first her hand and then Billy’s. 

His throat began to ache and he could not 
speak, but gave each a racking hand-squeeze 
and turned away, his eyes burning, his heart 
beating, yet feeling lighter than since his first 
glimpse of the venomous circular. 

On the steps outside he met Jim Barney face 
to face. He had hoped this would not happen. 
Since the day when, a little boy, he had fought 
Jimmy Dorr for whipping the twins, Vilette and 
Evelyn, fought with every muscle in his body 
a twisted whip-cord of indignation, he had had 
no such “bloody hate” for anything living as 
he now felt for Jim. It took all the self-control 
he possessed to answer the Kid’s sneering greet- 
ing calmly and pass on. 

“Where have you cached the D. E. B? 
Money comes in handy when one has — ” Jim 
never finished. 

The double-barrelled shot was barely sped 
when Billy sprang upon him. Fortunately for 
Jim he was on the last step and had not far to 
fall. He had not expected Billy to retaliate. 
He knew that Billy prized the honors he ex- 


STANDS THE TEST 


201 


pected to win, and did not believe he would for- 
feit them by fighting, no matter how great the 
provocation. Neither did he reckon on the re- 
versal of his own maxim in life, “ Might makes 
right.” 

Billy was proverbially good-natured. His 
quick wit could turn most of the “joshing” back 
on the “josher,” and he had learned that fight- 
ing is usually an indulgence to the blood of the 
beast in us, rather than an act of devotion to 
right. But when the man slow to fight does be- 
come enraged, especially if it is in the just cause 
of others, he is twice an adversary; the blood of 
the beast joins with the spirit of man. Right 
then makes might. 

Billy was younger, slenderer, less skilled; for 
the Kid valued his “good right arm” as his 
chief glory in life. But right arm and skill, any 
force that mere physical exercise had developed, 
met its Waterloo in such a tide of outraged spirit 
as enables a little woman with a carving fork, to 
put to flight desperadoes, or such as now nerved 
Billy’s arms. 

In that grapple his fingers were pincers of 
steel. His doubled fists were derrick hammers. 


202 


BILLY T O-M O R R O W 


and every blow brought blood. The Kid did 
not have time even to think of his vaunted 
“strangle-hold,” his pet “trip-trick.” He was 
down and under — not under a man, but a fury 
all legs, arms, weight, crushing knee, strangling 
fingers powerful beyond belief. 

So fast rained the blows that the by-standers, 
silenced by what they read in Billy’s face, hardly 
believed the fight begun before they saw the 
Kid’s resistance weaken, his body grow limp. 
Billy realized it, and ceased his onslaught. 

“Say ‘enough,’ or I’ll kill you!” Billy’s 
words were not loud, but they carried a white- 
hot power to the half-conscious fellow under 
him. 

“ Enough,” came in a thick voice. 

Billy got to his feet, bent and turned the Kid’s 
face up, — a bloody, bruised face, — and set his 
foot on the heaving breast. “Stay where you 
are till I speak.” His words hit like bullets. 
“Within a week you get out another dodger and 
take back the slam you gave that girl. You find 
the key to that desk, and return the money you 
stole from me — ” 

Billy, blinded by his passion and sure of his 





i i 


Stay where you are till I speak. 


) ) 


*-»o 



STANDS THE TEST 


203 


ground, flung out his accusations, forgetting that 
money is visible, ponderable; that evidence to 
its theft must be equally convincing. 

But the Kid did not forget. He was cowed 
but not beaten. He reached out a thick, dirty 
forefinger and interrupted. “ Go to the man 
who printed that dodger if you want retraction, 
not to me. You’ve called me a thief, you son 
of a gun! You’re the thief, and I’ll prove it! 
I’ll have you in the pen — ” 

Reginald and Sis Jones, who had stayed to dis- 
cuss Billy’s plight, now came on the scene in 
company with Redtop in time to see Billy spring 
again on the prostrate Jim. 

“ Hold on, Billy! Do you strike a man when 
he’s down?” 

Reginald’s cool voice checked Billy’s wild 
fury, that had leaped again at the Kid’s accusa- 
tion. He looked up fierecely. “ He called me 
a thief, Reg, — a thief! ” 

“What evidence have you for saying that, 
Jim?” Reginald asked sternly while helping 
him to his feet. 

“ I ’m not giving my case away.” 

“ You ’ll have to, or be arrested for libel.” 


204 BILLY TO-MORROW 

This was a bold stroke, but Jim thought he 
knew more than any of them when it came to 
accusation, law, and trickery. “Arrest noth- 
ing! You did n’t hear me. You can’t swear — ” 

“ But these others did.” Reginald glanced 
about at the five or six boys looking silently on 
at the quarrel. 

“Then they’ll have to bring suit, not you.” 

“What rot is this?” Redtop lunged forward 
and leaned threateningly near Jim. “ I don’t 
give a dead dog for law, but if you call Billy 
Bennett a thief, you loafer, I ’ll mop this town 
with you 1 ” 

It looked to Jim as if he would have two fu- 
ries to fight . “ I ’ll explain. Bill won’t even try 
to deny that he stayed out all night after the pic- 
nic with — ” 

“ If you bring a girl’s name into this I ’ll kill 
you! I’ll — ” 

“That’s right! No girl’s name may be men- 
tioned here.” 

The cool, authoritative voice was the Princi- 
pal’s, Professor Teal’s. He ordered the boys to 
his office, and there the story of the fight and 
the causes producing it were retold, save by 


STANDS THE TEST 205 

common consent the episode of the picnic was 
not touched. 

“ I ’ll take this under advisement” the Princi- 
pal said quietly, when the matter had been 
thrashed out with no definite result. He saw it 
was a tangle none could unravel except those who 
would not. Jim had been so adroit that no gap 
in his story left an opening for attack. 

Billy remained after the others were dis- 
missed. 

The Principal returned from closing the 
door, and did not speak for a moment, but stood 
with his back to Billy fumbling with some books 
on his desk. When he wheeled Billy saw a dif- 
ferent Principal from the one he knew, calm, 
cheerful yet powerful and a little stern. Instead, 
he saw a sorrowful face. 

“ Bennett, I can’t tell you how I regret this. 
I — I suppose you know that if you have not a 
more convincing explanation you’ll lose your 
honors? — perhaps have to leave the school?” 

“Yes, Professor Teal.” 

“Can you tell me privately anything more 
than I heard? As it is, you are charged with 
theft, and have been fighting.” 


2o6 billy to-morrow 


Billy hesitated. “I — I think I can say no 
more.” 

After another silence the man asked suddenly, 
“ Did the picnic episode noted in that circular 
refer to you?” 

Billy’s eyes blazed. “ It did.” 

“You are the last one I should have suspected 
had I not heard Barney’s remark. How did it 
happen?” 

“ It was an accident. My watch went wrong.” 

“That was unfortunate.” 

“Professor Teal,” Billy burst out suddenly, 
‘ ‘I believe my watch was purposely set back, for 
it has never varied before nor since. Some one 
planned the whole thing for spite. How else 
could any one have known about it? We came 
home separately and — and — Not one mo- 
ment of that night is one we need be ashamed 
of.” 

“Then I shall have two or three of the 
teachers hear your report and the young wom- 
an’s—” 

“ Pardon me, Mr. Teal, I would never give 
her name.” 

“Will she not wish to do this herself?” 


STANDS THE TEST 


207 


“ I think not. My silence will protect her. 
That’s what I fought Jim Barney for.” And 
when the man did not reply at once, Billy added 
impulsively, “ Mr. Teal, in my place would you 
give away a girl?” 

The man turned, laid a kindly hand on Billy’s 
shoulder, and smiled. “ Billy, if I had the pluck 
I wouldn’t. But go home and tell your 
mother.” 

“I — I had hoped not to worry her.” 

“I’ve met your mother; and from what I 
know of her I think she’s worrying already. 
Moreover, she will have to know why you lose 
your honors, won’t she?” 

“I — I guess you’re right. I’ll tell her.” 

He bade the Principal good-bye and started 
off with a buoyance that surprised him, for he 
was stiff and sore, and he knew his standing 
among his mates was lost. 

Not till he was nearly home did he think of 
his troop. Would the Scoutmaster take away 
his badges? He must, if the theft of funds was 
known. For Mr. Streeter the return of the 
money would not be enough ; he must know that 
Billy did not commit the theft. 


2o8 BILLY TO-MORROW 


“He need never know; they have made up 
the sum,” Billy thought. Yet instantly he knew 
that was neither justification nor proof of his 
innocence. 


CHAPTER Xlir 


ERMINIE TIES ANOTHER KNOT 

B illy told his mother all except Erminie’s 
connection with the situation, which his 
stubborn loyalty withheld. But Mrs, Bennett 
had seen the circular and drawn her own con- 
clusions, which were the same as Bess’s, though 
the older woman saw there was no way of 
reaching Jim Barney. She resented the heart- 
lessness of the girl who could allow Billy to 
bear the blame alone, though of course she did 
not connect her in any way with the theft. 

“Billy, Billy! I thought you had at least 
learned to keep your money in a bank.” 

“ I told you the bank was closed.” 

“ I could have banked it for you.” 

“ I never thought of that.” 

“‘Never thought’ doesn’t lock the door, nor 
rebuild the burned house. Of course I shall ad- 
vance the money, but that does not clear you. 
Your brother Hal is too busy to be troubled just 
209 


210 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


now, but before school opens in the Autumn 
everything must be straightened out. Perhaps 
before that the girl will see fit to speak — ” 

“ She can’t tell anything about the money.” 

“ But she can clear up the picnic matter.” 

“But I shall not return to school, mother; I 
am going to work for Mr. Smith the Monday 
after school closes.” 

Mrs. Bennett looked at him sternly a mo- 
ment. “ Billy, don’t you know that you are still 
my little boy in the eyes of the law? You will 
have to go to school if I require it.” 

Billy put his arm around her. “Yes, mother; 
but you won’t require it if a woman’s good name 
depends on my doing what I think right.” 

She returned his earnest look and sighed. 
“ Perhaps you ’re right, Billy. At least I cannot 
live your life for you. Take your position for 
the Summer, and afterward — we’ll see.” Mrs. 
Bennett had learned that patient waiting, more 
often than opposition, adjusts tangled matters 
wisely. 

The election for president of the student body 
took place the next day, at the close of the after- 
noon session. All day groups of students at ev- 


STANDS THE TEST 


2II 

ery opportunity had discussed the situation in 
low tones. It was known to both factions that 
the teachers were watching carefully, and that 
on the slightest indication of disorder or chican- 
ery they would interfere. 

The Kid was openly jubilant, and his forces 
full of brag, though Walter Buckman did not 
quite conceal his anxiety. But Hector’s friends 
were serious, extraordinarily quiet, yet mysteri- 
ously busy. 

Several of the leading boys wore badges bear- 
ing an inscription none but the initiated could 
read. These were seen to be in close conversa- 
tion for a moment at a time with student after 
student; and after each such conversation the 
badge-wearer was seen to pass a card. He was 
especially busy among the girls. 

Observing these groups, sensitive Billy 
thought they often glanced his way; and he no- 
ticed that the active ones were all his friends. 
But none of them came to him. It was the first 
mark of disapproval they had shown him. 
Among the workers were Redtop, Sis Jones, 
Reginald, and Mumps, his four best friends ex- 
cept Hector. 


212 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


He watched them pass and repass during the 
noon hour, always with a pleasant nod but too 
busy to stop. In the halls he met them as groups 
passed to the recitation rooms, and outside it was 
the same. And even Bess, who always had time 
for a word, now waved to him and actually hur- 
ried away. 

At last he could endure inaction no longer. 
He wanted to be in the fight, to be doing things 
for Hector. The truth did not occur to him till 
he finally appealed to his cousin at the close of 
the session. “Say, Hec, what do the fellows 
mean, leaving me out of your fight? I’ve 
chewed the rag with myself all day, expecting 
I’d be asked to kick in for something; but 
they’ve passed me by as if I were a stone dog or 
a skunk cabbage.” 

“Don’t get peeved, Billy. You don’t know 
the whole game. Our boys are secretly fixing 
the lie on the circular. We’ve found out the 
whole business, name of the printer, and how 
much he got for concealing the name of his 
press; but we’re not talking out loud, because 
that would queer things.” 

“Gee! That’s great!” 


STANDS THE TEST 


213 


“ Every one in the school who holds club or 
society funds has been investigated and found 
to the good.” 

“That— that— ” 

“ Fixes you. Of course I ’m not supposed to 
be busy on any of this, neither are you supposed 
to be interested. See?” 

Billy looked down and scraped the floor ab- 
sently with his toe. “ I see I ’m a heavy drag 
on you, Hec. I Ve about knocked you silly.” 

Redtop, hurrying by, heard this. “ Stop run- 
ning off at the mouth, Billy To-morrow! We’ve 
got them shot all to pieces ; only it ’s on the q. t. 
till after the trick is turned. It’s your cue — 
ours, all of us — to look all in, meachin’ like. 
We’ll hit the cheers later.” 

And so it transpired. The contest was quickly 
over. Hector won by a clear majority of thirty- 
seven. The jollification followed; and several 
of the teachers, waiting in the building conven- 
iently in case of difficulty, came into the assem- 
bly room and listened to the riot of exultation. 

The other party was dazed. They had counted 
so confidently on Jim Barney’s contention that 
“queering Billy meant queering Hec Price,” 


214 BILLY TO-MORROW 


that they could not at once realize their defeat. 
Their leader was a master at vilifying; but had 
not lived long enough to know that reputation 
is cumulative and powerful for better or for 
worse. Billy had built his good name in the 
school too surely to be downed by one blow; and 
the students who didn’t know Billy proved their 
good sense by voting for Hector on his merits 
instead of his connections. 

But the leader “ played his game ” to the end. 
After Hector had closed his speech of apprecia- 
tion, the Kid claimed the floor and delivered a 
scathing speech, full of innuendo, and inter- 
rupted by hisses and cat-calls, and ending with 
a startling threat. 

“ I leave school in a few days. I know the 
schools are run in the interest of certain political 
factions, in the interest of the classes. I ’ll be a 
voter pretty soon ; and when I am, I ’ll have my 
father and his bunch behind me, and we ’ll make 
school matters sizzle. We’ll see that student 
rights are not invaded by teachers, and that the 
smooth-tongued element gets what’s coming — ” 

Because Hector had been the speaker’s oppo- 
nent he felt that his first act in the newly created 


STANDS THE TEST 


215 


chair could not be one of repression; but now 
the speech was becoming so incendiary that riot 
threatened. The factions vied with each other 
in demonstration, each going as far as it dared 
in the presence of teachers. 

At this point Hector rapped for order, inef- 
fectually at first but insistently; and two or three 
of Barney’s followers who had another year in 
the school to forfeit if they overstepped disci- 
pline, plucked at him and audibly warned him 
that he was likely to lose his diploma. 

He glared at them and went on. “ They can’t 
do it. They can’t refuse me my diploma be- 
cause I exercise the right of free speech. I can 
call the President of the United States any name 
I please, and the president of a school-board or 
a principal is no better, because my taxes sup- 
port all of ’em. I — ” 

He got no farther. Redtop whispered some- 
thing in Walter Buckman’s ear that made him 
start up in his seat. He reached over and pulled 
the Kid down, and three or four boys hustled 
him from the room. And Hector adjourned the 
most threatening meeting in the history of the 
school. 


2i6 billy to-morrow 


Afifairs moved on to the end of the term in 
outward quiet; yet the Principal, aided by a few 
of the teachers, carried on a thorough search for 
the author of the circular, that proved little. 
The small firm that printed the circulars told 
what they knew, but said the business was car- 
ried on entirely through correspondence. The 
copy being private matter required no sig- 
nature, and the payment was by coin brought 
by a small boy whom they could not identify, 
and to whom they delivered the order. 

Thus when graduation came, Jim Barney 
stepped arrogantly forward and, as the others, 
received his diploma. Billy’s anger swelled 
again, but he could not indulge it for long. 
There was Reginald who had won first place, 
delivering his oration with a power that cheered; 
and many others Billy knew, receiving well 
earned rewards. Only Erminie’s name was not 
called, and Billy felt anew his remorse as he re- 
membered that but for him she would have been 
there, more beautiful than any of them. 

Next year it would be Hec and Redtop, Bess, 
Sis Jones, and all the “ gang”; and he would not 
be with them. This was the last day of school 


STANDS THE TEST 


217 


for him. But soon he forgot regret in the midst 
of good-byes, bustle, and joyous confusion, that 
presently subsided and left the gray building 
silent and ghostly for the long summer vacation. 

Saturday was a busy day, spent at home in 
preparation for work, in “squaring up” troop 
duties, a bit of shopping, and other matters that 
had been put off till the end of school. He was 
to sleep at home, but would leave early for his 
work and return late. There would be little 
time for other matters. 

For weeks, beneath the push of increasing 
duties, he vainly had tried to down the ache 
that came with thought of Erminie. She had 
not written. He missed her, and was hurt, sore 
because she had gone without a word to him, 
and had not let him know her hiding-place. 
He tried to excuse her. He invented a dozen 
ways in which a note she might have left for 
him could have gone astray. But the ache still 
lingered. 

The Sunday before he left home was the hard- 
est day of all. He was tired. His bridges were 
burned behind him, and his march ahead, not 
begun, was portentous with unknown trials. 


2i8 billy to-morrow 


He worried himself with visions of Erminie ill, 
in trouble, alone, or perhaps worse, with people 
who mistreated her. Might the struggle be too 
much for her? Might she end it? 

But he did not dwell long on that thought. 
Erminie was too cheerful, stout of heart, too 
bright and winning, and life meant too much 
to her; she would not fail. One thing, how- 
ever, haunted him persistently; she would need 
money, and he could not send it to her. 

The day wore on. In the evening they 
gathered around the piano and sang the songs 
they loved, Billy’s smooth, rich bass making 
the family quartette complete. It was nine 
o’clock, and Billy was saying good-night because 
he must be up and off by six in the morning, 
when a messenger came with an “ immediate 
delivery ” letter for Billy. 

At last! He felt sure that it was from Er- 
minie and his heart jumped, though he held 
his face calm. He was glad the address was 
typewritten, — they would think it was from 
the troop, or from some of the boys on impor- 
tant business. With a hasty excuse he took it to 
his room to read. There he tore it open, sur- 


STANDS THE TEST 


219 

prised that his hand was trembling, his breath 
coming in gusts. 

'' Dearest Billy : 

‘‘You must have worried about me something awful. I 
did not write before because you told me not to. At first I 
did n’t know what to do, but now I ’m going to stay right 
here. They want me to. It was perfectly darling of you to 
let me have that money, so much too. And I know you ’ll 
need it. But what a funny way to send it ! I’m sending 
two dollars. I can’t spare more yet. 

“ I had an awful chin with the Kid the night before I went 
away, the night you were on the scout. As soon as I saw 
that dodger I called him up over the phone and told him to 
come over ; and he did, and we walked and talked and talked. 
He wanted to go and sit in the park, but I would n’t. I told 
him he ’d have to take back all he said, but he was nasty. 
He said he had both of us right where he wanted us; that 
I had lied to him, and a few more like that ; and he was n’t 
even yet, — he ’d only begun. There was more coming. 

“ Billy, I hated to run away and leave you to bear every- 
thing alone; and I hate it when I can’t even tell you where 
I am ; but as long as you told me to do it, and wait four 
weeks before writing, I ’ve done just as you said, though it ’s 
been hard. I ’m sure you know best. But why did you 
typewrite it? 

“ Don’t worry about me. I ’m at my cousin’s, — my uncle’s 
house, and they treat me fine. I don’t have to do anything 
that I don’t wish to, and Cousin Will is dandy. Tell ma 
this; though I suppose you won’t since you fixed everything 
safe for me. Poor ma ! I ’m sorry for her. 

“ I ’m sending you a thousand kisses and a heartful of love. 
I ’ll send more money as soon as I can earn it. 

“Your loving, troublesome Erminie.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE BLACK HAND 


HE Summer was well on toward Septem- 



A ber. Billy’s first business that Monday 
morning in June when he made his final break 
with boyhood was to go to Mr. Smith’s Tum- 
wah Valley office for instructions. Here Mr. 
Smith came every morning to see how his big 
concerns were going in earth and rock, before 
he took them up in his town offices in the mystic 
symbolism of paper and figures, and business 
policy and confidence, — all that vast idealism 
which is so much more really the business of the 
world than are the products of the earth we 
live on. 

From the open door of the artistic, vine-cov- 
ered log building Billy could look up the steep 
hill to Tuk-wil-la (hazel-nuts), Mr. Smith’s 
summer home, set in the edge of the forest over- 
looking the little valley and the broad Lake 
Kalrlak-a-la-chuck. 


220 


BILLY TO-MORROW 221 


Mr. Smith’s instructions were brief. “ I told 
you it would be no picnic, Billy. This is your 
stunt: take your shovel and go to work with 
those Dagos on the grade. Learn all of ’em, the 
look of the face, walk, and whatever you can 
pick up of their talk. You’ll have to slouch 
along and be a Dago yourself. Mind, I don’t 
want any tattling, — just to know if they are plot- 
ting any mischief, that’s all. And don’t come 
near me unless you’re called. Treat me as you 
see them treat me. See?” 

“ I ’ll try,” Billy answered. He went to the 
foreman for his tools, and set to work. 

The hard work, the long hours, and Billy’s 
youth unaccustomed to labor left him at night 
little more than a log to roll into bed, sleep heav- 
ily, and go dully off in the morning to another 
day of digging. It was no wonder that the 
strange situation of being engaged to marry a 
young woman and already entered upon his life 
obligation of providing her home, and yet no^ 
knowing where she was, did not weigh upon 
him as much as he had thought it would. 

But as he became hardened to his labor, her 
problem grew more obtrusive, and he longed 


222 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


to hear from her. He puzzled over the one, the 
only letter he had received, trying by many 
readings to understand it, but it revealed less 
and less meaning. That she had received a let- 
ter purporting to be from him instructing her 
to take the money from his club fund, go away, 
and not Write for four weeks, and even then not 
reveal her location, — this he gathered. But 
how she came by such a letter which he had 
never written, how she could be deceived in the 
writing, how she got the desk drawer open, — 
these and many other questions would have be- 
come unendurable had he not been so engrossed 
with his new life. 

Through the papers he had seen that her fa- 
ther had failed in business, that Mr. Alvin Short 
was the chief creditor, and that the home had 
been sold. It also transpired that Mr. Fisher’s 
business record was not one of which any son-in- 
law could be proud. 

Billy could never recover from his disgust at 
the camp feeding where the dirty crew bolted 
better food than they were accustomed to in 
silent haste, and yet complained. It was some 
time before the well-bred boy could mentally 


STANDS THE TEST 


223 


detach himself and imagine he was in his own 
home; but he partly accomplished this feat at 
last, and ate with better appetite. 

He found one among them, an American 
whose better upbringing had somewhat survived 
the tramping that had gone with the bottle. He 
was now “doing his yearly stunt” at work, he 
said, putting by enough to keep him out of “ the 
poor house, or the chain gang, or whatever is 
the fashion for the gentry of the road in the 
town I strike next Winter.” 

At one corner of the table they ate together, 
and sometimes talked a little, while the rest fed. 
But he was a philosopher, and Billy learned 
from him many things that set him thinking. 
“ Billy, a man must fight and wait,” the man 
broke out suddenly one day, “before he can 
fight and win.” They were lying under a ma- 
drono tree, resting after the midday meal. 

“You’ll have to switch on the light; I don’t 
get a glimmer,” Billy replied lazily. 

“Anybody can fight, when he has to; even a 
dog does ; but few of us have the grit to fight and 
hold on. You’re just beginning life, my boy; 
hold on.” 


224 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“ I mean to do that.” 

“Not to this! It is a dog’s life — to slave for 
another man, feed, sleep, wake, and do it all over 
again. I shall not do it much longer. But you 
— don’t form the quitting habit; hold, and all 
the time search for something better. Then 
your fight tells. See?” 

“Yes. But what’s the matter with you? Why 
don’t you do a little holding yourself?” 

The man’s eyes darkened and he frowned. 
“Too late.” 

“ It ’s never too late.” 

The man jerked himself up, and energy 
flashed in the weak face. “ Not too late for you. 
Opportunity will pass your way many times. 
Catch her every time — hold her. By Heaven! 
With your face and body, your clean mind and 
good brain, you can do anything, — be a young 
god. Billy, a fellow at the open door of life 
doesn’t suspect his power, doesn’t use a fraction 
of it.” He reached his hand up to the summer 
sky. “Up there, down here,” he dug his foot 
into the fecund earth, “a thousand million pos- 
sibilities wait for us to draw them forth with our 
minds.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


225 

“And you?” Billy asked as the other looked 
off gloomily. 

He wheeled almost angrily. “I? I have 
ruined my chances. It takes a clear eye, a 
steady hand, and a clean heart — mind you, a 
clean heart — to see and hear the secrets up 
there, down here.” Again he indicated earth 
and sky. “Under desert skies, miles from any 
human habitation, I Ve watched the stars march 
from purple twilight to golden morning, and 
heard things — whispers right out of heaven that 
would have been triumph for me if — if I had 
been fit.” 

The foreman called, and they took up their 
shovels; and Billy’s was no longer heavy. But 
the man settled into his habitual silent, uneven 
effort. 

Side by side they worked till mid-afternoon, 
when the Smiths’ machine appeared in the dis- 
tance, May Nell alone in the tonneau. Billy’s 
first impulse was to straighten and greet her, but 
it flashed across him that the men must not know 
of his acquaintance with the daughter of the 
“boss.” “Stand in front of me, will you?” he 
asked of the man, and bent to re-tie his shoe. 


226 BILLY TO-MORROW 


“What did you do that for?” the tramp in- 
quired as the machine flew by. “ Do you know 
her? If you do, don’t let any devilish pride 
keep you from standing in her presence, a man, 
clean-faced or dirty.” 

Billy grinned. “ That ’s all right; it ’s part of 
my game.” 

“ I don’t get you.” 

“ It’s not because my face is dirty, or that she 
would care — she’s pure gold — but because it’s 
part of my job to do that.” 

“All right; you know your cards; I don’t.” 

Billy’s eyes twinkled. “This is the fight,” he 
waved his hand around toward the sweating, 
bending crew; “and not letting her see me is 
the holding on. See?” 

The philosopher smiled. “You’ve caught 
on, all right.” 

That night after work, and supper, and when 
Billy was trudging down the hill to get the car 
for home, he met the machine again. He tried 
to dodge it for workmen were passing, some 
lounging along the dusty road in groups. 

May Nell saw him and ordered the driver to 
stop. “ What do you mean, Billy Boy, by refus- 



What do you mean, Billy Boy, by refusing to speak to me?^' 




STANDS THE TEST 


227 

ing to speak to me? I saw you this afternoon. 
Your shoe didn’t need — ” 

“Miss Smith, I — ” 

She stiffened as if struck. 

“Miss Smith, circumstances alter cases,” 
Billy added quietly. 

She was conscious of the slower gait of the 
dark passers, their smiles and frank curiosity. 

“ I ’m sorry I can’t tell you any more, lady,” 
he finished with a comical imitation of the 
obsequious attitude of the foreign workman to 
his employers. “ I tell-a the Big-a Boss.” 

She laughed and ordered the machine on, but 
he saw the perplexity in her face as she sped 
away. 

Billy turned to meet a leering, grinning Ital- 
ian face. “ Boss-a girl vera good look-a.” He 
gave Billy a nudge that permitted no resent- 
ment, since Billy had encouraged familiarity 
from the workmen. “You lika?” 

Billy ached to “ spoil his face.” Instead, “ Be 
prepared” came instantly to his mind. He 
pointed to the palatial home on the hill, Tuk- 
wil-la. “Queens! Understand?” 

The man nodded. 


228 BILLY TO-MORROW 


Billy stooped and gathered a handful of the 
dust at his feet and pointed to himself. “Me. 
Understand?” 

Again the man nodded, but with a queer look, 
half credulity, half suspicion, and trudged on. 

Billy had not grown up in the vineyard coun- 
try of California without learning something of 
Italian peasantry, and he had not worked a 
week before he knew the men had a grievance. 
He got an Italian primer and a phrase book, and 
utilized his time on the car, which was nearly 
two hours each day, for studying, with the re- 
sult of being shortly able to catch the drift of 
most that was said around him. So it was that 
as the Summer passed he learned and reported 
enough of their crude plottings to keep Mr. 
Smith on his guard. 

When Billy arrived home a second letter from 
Erminie awaited him, and again behind his 
locked door he read it, wondering as he tore it 
open, that he did not feel the same excited hurry 
as over the first one. It was the unsatisfactory 
letter of one unaccustomed to correspondence 
and without the natural gift for it, yet it was 
surprising enough. 


STANDS THE TEST 


229 


''Dearest Billy: 

" Here is five dollars more. I *11 be able to pay up soon 
now, for Cousin Will got me a job. It has seemed a long 
time to wait, six weeks; but I *m doing just as you said in 
that letter of instruction, Billy. 

" I want to tell you again, Billy, that I would rather have 
faced it out with you, because I wasn’t afraid to stand up 
to anybody about that night, with you so splendid to me. 
It ’s all right. Whatever you say goes about that business. 

" I can’t understand yet how it was you knew all about the 
circular, and had it all planned out — what I was to do — 
before you went on the scout. None of us knew about it, 
the dodger I mean, till Saturday night. And how was it, 
Billy, that you had me send the key to a place away over in 
North City? I didn’t know any of your friends lived over 
there. The way I put it up is that some one there is to act 
in the club pro tern, for you this Summer, while you are 
working. 

" I like my work just fine. Such a jolly bunch, hayseeds 
of course, but I ’m getting so I don’t mind that. And 
they’ re all so nice to me, especially the boys. But Cousin 
Will don’t let any of ’em get funny. They all think I ’m 
his steady. 

" I ’m sending a letter to ma in this. Please mail it. I 
expect she’s about crazy. I sent one to the home number. 
I had to do that, Billy, if you did tell me not to. That was 
n’t a bit like you, Billy. But the letter came back. If this 
goes to the general delivery maybe she ’ll get it. You ’ll send 
it, won’t you, Billy? She’s lost her home, you know; I saw 
it in the paper. Or Will did. 

" So long, dear Billy. Don’t forget me, though I ’m not 
worth remembering. I think a lot of you. If I amount to 
anything it ’ll be a lot because of you. 


230 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“ Cousin Will is dandy to me, so thoughtful, — lots like 
you, only he ’s a hayseed too ; but I don’t mind that ; I ’m 
getting used to it. He ’s twenty- four, 

“ Your loving Erminie.” 

Billy stared at the sheet a long time, turning 
it over and over, and scrutinizing the envelope 
as if he might make it tell him something more. 
What could it all mean? Who had sent her that 
letter? Planned her movements so carefully 
and forged his name? And the money? He 
did n’t see yet how she could have got it out of 
the drawer at school even if she did have a key. 

Twenty-four! An old fellow that Will was. 
He was n’t really her cousin either. Billy set his 
teeth and wished he were free to set out on a 
search for her. The letter was postmarked 
Portland, Oregon. The other had been the same. 
But of course the place where she was must be 
the country, and some distance too, or she would 
not call the people hayseeds. 

Suddenly the task of finding a girl somewhere 
in the State of Oregon with nothing but that 
postmark to guide him revealed to him its hope- 
lessness ; and too restless to sleep he went out and 
walked, — faster and faster, without realizing it, 
going south. 


STANDS THE TEST 


231 


With every step the puzzle grew worse. Only 
one grain of comfort showed: Erminie’s letter 
would prove him no thief. Why, yes! that 
really fastened the proof on him, and worse, 
showed that he was taking care of her. That 
was no way out of the tangle. 

Who could be using his name for this busi- 
ness? Of course, no one but the Kid, and he was 
too cunning to be caught. And where was that 
key? Would some of the boys get it, and never 
know where it came from? And the desk 
drawer — whose would it be when September 
found that silent old pile ringing again with a 
thousand student voices? 

At length he found himself in the southern- 
most park of the city, not so very far from Tum- 
wah. Exhausted, he threw himself on one of 
the benches, drawing well within the shadows 
that he might, unmolested, go over again all the 
matters that troubled him. 

While he mused, he became gradually con- 
scious of voices approaching, and he was sens- 
ible of some ominous import in them. He knew 
they were Italians. Instantly he dropped to the 


232 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


grass and crept behind the bench, intending to 
go on as soon as they passed. 

They were quarrelling, but speaking in 
guarded tones, vehemently. Billy heard broken 
bits, “ More, more,” and “ Thousand dollars,” 
in English; and in Italian, names of places he 
knew were in Italy. But nothing excited him 
till he heard, “ the boss,” and “ in the lake! ” 

The Black Hand! That had put its mark on 
Mr. Smith! Well, even the Black Hand might 
find its mate in a white one! 

Billy was not so frightened as he might have 
been, had he known less of their ways, these hot- 
headed Latins that live in America, but not of 
it till a second generation binds them to the soil. 
He knew their allegiance to hates and friend- 
ships rooted in the land they had left; and per- 
haps what he had heard was only a scheme to 
“even up” somewhere, arid concerned Mr. 
Smith only so far as the fact that the money 
they earned came from him. 

The men went by slowly, halting once or 
twice, and Billy crept cautiously out and fol- 
lowed them at a distance till they came under one 
of the park lamps that revealed them perfectly. 


STANDS THE TEST 


233 

Billy knew them; one was the man who had 
chaffed him about May Nell. 

He hurried around by the gate on the other 
side and took a car for home, where he called 
up Mr. Smith at Tuk-wil-la. 

“ It sounds important, Billy. Out with it.” 

“ It’s not to be told over the wire. But please 
don’t leave your house to-night — ” 

“To-night? It’s twelve o’clock. You’ve got 
me out of bed.” 

“Well, let me see you in the morning before 
you leave the house, then ; it may be nothing, — ■ 
what I have to tell, — and it may be a good 
deal.” 

“ All right, boy. Don’t worry yourself. Noth- 
ing is as bad in the morning as it seems at night. 
Good-night.” 

But in spite of that bit of truth Billy went to 
bed to dream of swarthy banditti, Italian caves, 
beautiful maids held for ransom, and hair- 
breadth escapes known only to dreams. 


CHAPTER XV 


A GLEAM OF LIGHT 

HEN Billy rang at Tuk-wil-la the next 



» » morning Mr, Smith was waiting for 
him; and safely in the den Billy told his story. 
At the close he was astonished to hear Mr. Smith 
chuckle softly. 

“ Look at that curiosity.” He handed the boy 
a smudged and rumpled letter. 

It was a threat common enough to -men of 
large concerns, ill-spelled, blotted, and signed 
with a black hand. It demanded ten thousand 
dollars, to be delivered by Mr. Smith in person 
and alone, the next night at a certain designated 
hour and place; and failure to comply meant 
certain death to one of his family. 

“Sounds creepy, doesn’t it, Billy?” 

“What will you do?” 

“What they tell me to do, — with a differ- 
ence.” 

“You — surely you won’t go, Mr. Smith I” 


234 


BILLY TO-MORROW 235 

“ Surely I will. But three or four good men 
will be hidden out there in the bushes.” 

“Gee! I’d like to be one; I can shoot.” 

Mr. Smith shook his head, and his smile died. 
“This is probably comic opera, yet — you’re 
your mother’s only son, and there might be a bit 
of a scrimmage. Besides I have other work for 
you.” 

“All right.” 

Mr. Smith smiled, for Billy’s tone was not 
hearty. “The Tum-wah people’s second injunc- 
tion is out; but I can take care of that well 
enough, if I can beat daylight on another prop- 
osition.” He rose and took a turn or two around 
the room, one hand in his pocket, the other pull- 
ing roughly at his mustache, “ Do you know 
what our real trouble is?” 

“ The city won’t let you have the right of way 
over the boulevard? Is that it?” 

“Yes. Do you know why?” 

Billy looked up shrewdly. “You won’t pay 
the price?” 

“ Right, the first guess. Alvin Short wants to 
cinch us. And the worst of it is, if he gets what 
he asks, he’ll bleed us every time we cross a 


236 BILLY TO-MORROW 

street or cut an alley. Now your job is this: to 
watch this property while the Smith family go 
on an excursion.” 

Billy could not help showing his surprise. 
Usually the force of servants was trusted to do 
that. 

Mr. Smith laughed and nodded through the 
window to where thick green woods swept an 
impenetrable curtain past the singing falls, past 
the private grounds, and down the hill. “The 
boulevard lies through there. It won’t be built 
for two years, yet I may not go over it nor un- 
der nor across it till they get their price. Billy, 
there’s — how many points of law in posses- 
sion?” 

Billy smiled but was discreetly silent. 

“ I want six of the Italian bunch down there,” 
he nodded toward the valley below, where men 
were already gathering for the day’s work. “ I 
want six that work, and don’t talk. Can you 
pick ’em out?” 

Billy named six, but recommended the tramp- 
philosopher. 

“No, not any Americans; not on this job. 
Now I must go down to the grade, stop the 


STANDS THE TEST 


237 


work, and pay of? the men. I guess that’s all, 
'Billy. Your work here begins to-morrow night. 
Sorry it’s not to be at our picnic,” 

When Billy left him and started down the 
steps. May Nell came running out to meet him. 
‘‘Billy! Wait a minute!” 

The sun touched her hair to brighter gold. 
She was rosier, fuller of cheek than formerly, 
and rounder of neck and arm, with an indescrib- 
able dignity that was not quite a woman’s, yet 
more than girlish. 

“ I heard you and hurried out to catch you. I 
never see you any more.” 

“ I ’m pretty busy these days.” 

“ Tell me why you called me ‘ Miss Smith ’ 
the other day.” 

“ I ’m only your father’s hired workman down 
there — as I am anywhere for that matter — and 
those fellows mustn’t see me presume to speak 
to you.” 

She laughed merrily. “That seems posi- 
tively funny, Billy, when I think of the day you 
led me into your mother’s house with a sheet 
pinned round me, a woman’s skirt torn and trail- 
ing, and my toes showing through my shoes.” 


238 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“ But now your father is worth a million and 
— and my face is dirty.” They had stopped 
near the conservatory, and he saw himself in a 
window that greenery behind had turned into a 
mirror, and laughed not quite mirthfully. 

She caught his hand — hard and grimy — in 
her soft ones. “Your heart isn’t dirty, Billy. 
And I want you to remember always that I think 
you are the very best boy in the world.” 

They laughed lightly, and Billy ran off, and 
that day the shovel was light. 

May Nell and her mother went away, the 
servants were given a vacation, and the house 
closed. It looked rather lonely when Billy came 
in the early evening. He had a room in the ga- 
rage, and was to be on duty practically all of the 
time. This was not arduous, for the entire place 
was enclosed in a high barbed-wire fence, as ef- 
fective as if not hidden by honeysuckle, wild rose, 
and clematis ; and at night the gates were locked 
and two Great Danes policed the grounds. 

The first evening was a test of Billy’s courage, 
not because anything happened, but because it 
was the first night of his life absolutely away 
from human beings. And also because his mind 


STANDS THE TEST 


239 

was with Mr. Smith, wondering what was hap- 
pening, and magnifying the danger. 

Morning came, and a telephone message say- 
ing, “Nothing doing; the blackmailers caught 
on.” And Billy almost forgot to be glad, so dis- 
appointed was he at the tame ending of his ad- 
venture. 

As the day passed, he knew something was 
going on in the forest. Soft voices came occa- 
sionally above the roar of the falls and the clink 
of iron; and in the evening he detected the 
odor of fresh coffee and toasting bacon. And 
Billy knew — Mr. Smith was crossing the boule- 
vard! 

Visitors and men on business, applying at the 
gate or by telephone, soon lessened ; and the rest 
and time for reading stimulated Billy to thought 
of things unremembered during the months of 
hard work. Each day he opened and aired the 
house, and found in the library books that made 
the hours short. 

Vague ideas he had hardly glimpsed for the 
flag design now took shape. The banner of the 
city! It must be a noble idea, yet simple, one 
that all would love; and it must be like the city. 


240 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


— the City of Green Hills. It was also a city of 
blue waters and bluer skies. 

Each day he dreamed over it till at last the 
idea bodied itself in a spire-crowned, forest-en- 
folded hill, with a sea at its base and the declin- 
ing sun on the far horizon. A shallop in full 
sail was setting forth toward the sun. 

There it was, the green hill, the city, the sea 
and its commerce. But this was present and fu- 
ture; something must show what had been van- 
quished. Rather sadly Billy put in an Indian 
and a bear at the edge of the forest, both look- 
ing backward. 

A sudden reminder came to him, — he was no 
longer a school-boy. With the resignation of 
his office of treasurer of the Good Citizens’ Club 
of the Fifth Avenue High he had severed every 
link between him and school. Yet he was still 
a club member, — that admitted him to the com- 
petition. He felt out of it all, old, — was he 
old before his time? He thought of his mother’s 
words, and then of Erminie, and — of May Nell. 

After about twelve days Mr. Smith appeared 
suddenly. His shoes were dusty and his hands 


STANDS THE TEST 


241 

and cufifs soiled; but he was oddly jaunty, as if 
some great load had been lifted. 

“Didn’t expect to see me, did you, Billy?” 

Billy returned the greeting, and waited, won- 
dering where his employer could have been. 

“ Great job, Billy! All done. As good a via- 
duct over that boulevard site as there is in the 
city. I ’ve just been looking it over. Did you 
know it was building?” 

Billy smiled. “ I only suspected.” 

“Good boy! You may see it now, any time 
you wish; but the men who built it won’t be 
there.” 

Billy looked inquiringly but did not speak. 

“It’s all right, boy; everything’s right. 
We’ll be riding on our own railroad in a week.” 

“ Knock on wood.” Billy laughed. 

“That’s right. There’s many a slip betwixt 
rail and tie. Run into town for a couple of days, 
boy, and see your mother. I ’ll look after the 
house now.” 

“Thank you. I — 

“ Oh, and you need n’t say I am here.” 

Billy was glad of the two days’ visit at home. 


242 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


It had never seemed so pleasantly dainty and 
quiet; and it was good to spend some time with 
his family when he was neither sleepy nor in a 
hurry. He called up some of “the kids” over 
the wire and began to feel young again. Sydney 
answered excitedly, and what he said took Billy 
flying across the town to see him, when he caught 
a glimmer of a clue to the mystery that had en- 
veloped him all Summer. 

“A Postal Telegraph kid I know saw Jim 
Barney go by one day,” Mumps began, “and 
that set the boy talking. ‘That’s a crooked one,’ 
he said, and then he told this story. He said 
that he took a letter for Kid Barney once late 
at night to a girl, — a mighty . good-looker, he 
called her, — and the next morning he went to 
the same place to get another letter; and in both 
was something hard, a key he thought it was. 
This made me sit up, and I asked him where the 
girl lived, and he said East Street, somewhere 
in the seven hundred block.” 

“That’s Erminie!” Billy burst out. 

“Sure. And that letter had — ” 

“That letter was a forged one from me, and 


STANDS THE TEST 


243 

it ordered her to take the money and run away, 
and not let any one know where she was.” 

“Jiminyl How do you know that much?” 

Billy told briefly of receiving the two letters. 
“Where can I find that telegraph boy?” 

“ He ’s gone to the country for a few days, but 
he’ll be back.” 

“Then we can clean it all up, and — ” Sud- 
denly all the hope died out of his face, and he 
turned away dejectedly. “No use. Mumps; 
there’s nothing doing.” 

“You bet there is ! Now that I know so much, 
I’ll have it out myself with — ” 

“ Mumps, it ’s just where it was before. Noth- 
ing can be done in the matter without bringing 
in the girl, and that we can’t do.” 

“Then it’s straight, what all the fellers are 
saying, that you two stayed out all night at the 
picnic?” 

“ I ’m not acknowledging that,” Billy said 
sternly; and then wheeled quickly. “Nothing 
happened that night that the whole world might 
not have seen.” 

Sydney looked his sympathy and his entire 
understanding. “ I see.” 


244 BILLY TO-MORROW 

“ My watch was set back that night.” 

Sydney jumped to his feet. “ Gee whack ! Did 
your coat hang on a tree back of the dancing 
place?” 

“Yes, for a time.” 

“ I saw the Kid fooling with something there, 
saw him hurry away just as I turned the corner. 
And that minute you passed me; but it wasn’t 
very light, and you did n’t notice me.” 

Billy was silent for a time. “ Mumps, all this 
may help me some day, but not now. Will you 
keep track of that messenger?” 

Mumps promised, and after some further dis- 
cussion that was barren, they separated. 

The second day Billy spent with the Scouts, 
visiting each troop, hearing of their scouting 
trips, watching the practice work, and with Mr. 
Streeter going over the plans for the great civic 
review of the Scouts, the Good Citizens’ Clubs, 
and the ceremony of accepting the successful 
flag design and awarding the prize. 

The evening of the second day Billy went back 
to Tum-wah. He was not due till morning, but 
he had become already a part of the great activi- 
ties incipient there, which his imagination could 


STANDS THE TEST 245 

see perfected and powerful. He felt by proxy 
the responsibility and the joy of it. 

Mr. Smith in his machine overtook Billy 
trudging up the hill, and took him in. 

“Ought I to ride — be seen riding with — ” 

“Jump in! You should not have come back 
before time, but I ’m glad you did. After to- 
night your job is over, and you’ll have a better 
one.” 

“ Why, what — what ’s doing? ” Billy began, 
too astonished even to realize the import of Mr. 
Smith’s remark. 

“Yes; find things changed, don’t you? We’ve 
been busy.” 

When Billy left, the grade had stretched bare 
and brown for miles without tie or rail. Now, 
except a short gap at the station and the half- 
mile of contested right of way the track was 
completed up the hill and into the forest. 

“The girls took a notion to come home ahead 
of time — surprise.” Mr. Smith looked toward 
the villa. “I hate surprises! Bad enough in 
business; but this — Well, now they’re here, 
we ’ll have to take care of ’em, Billy.” 

The boy thrilled at being included as a de- 


246 BILLY TO-MORROW 

fender of the two in the house they were ap- 
proaching. 

“ Get down in the tonneau,” Mr. Smith com- 
manded. “ They must not know you ’re here — 
and to watch ; they ’ll be uneasy.” 

Billy obeyed. 

“ Stay here — out of sight — till I come again ; 
I won’t be gone long.” Mr. Smith drove to the 
garage, but not in, and Billy got out and went to 
an inner room, his sleeping apartment. 

As he had feared he heard May Nell’s voice 
when her father returned to the machine. But 
he got rid of her. 

“ Run back, kiddie. I have some figuring to 
do, and then I must see a man at Tum-wah, and 
some other things — it may be very late before I 
get back.” 

“ It’s your birthday, papa. We came home to 
celebrate — ” 

“ To-morrow night will do as well ; make the 
old house hum if you like to-morrow.” 

“I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied,” May 
Nell said, and Billy heard the crunch of her 
slippers in the gravel. 

“Come out, Billy. I have time to' burn,” Mr. 


STANDS THE TEST 


247 


Smith called; and as Billy entered he saw the 
anxiety the man could not conceal. “ If any- 
thing suspicious occurs don’t wait to investigate 
but call up South 265, and tell ’em to come at 
once; then me at Tum-wah.” 

“Why don’t you have — the police, is it? — on 
hand before — ” 

“ I did n’t expect to have women in on this 
deal. And — there are times when one must 
have the trouble before he calls for the cure. 
Sometimes that makes a point in law.” 

He was silent a long time. And the night, 
too, seemed stiller to Billy than usual. Not a 
breath of wind was stirring, and nothing was 
moving out on the road, though the hum of the 
distant electric car was making itself heard. 

“By George, Billy! I don’t want trouble,” 
the man broke out suddenly. “ If those Tum- 
wah fellows had let me alone I’d have been 
willing to diwy even, and they’d have had 
twice as much as they have now. But they’ve 
hogged the game. They’ve pushed their in- 
junction suits, and fixed these Dago gardeners. 
Last night they tried to blow up my grade.” 

“They did?” Billy began to realize that 


248 BILLY TO-MORROW 

there might be a shadow of the Black Hand 
after all. 

“ But I Ve got the jump on ’em, Billy; got ’em 
in the neck, by George! They’ve violated their 
franchise, — I have the evidence in black and 
white ; and if this night’s work meets any inter- 
ference I ’ll put their old once-a-some-time-in- 
the-day cattle cars out of business.” 

He lit a cigar and puffed at it nervously. 
Billy had never seen him in this mood before. 

“They think I want to get the land round here 
for nothing. Boy, when a real man wants to 
make money, he takes something out of Nature 
that’s worthless, or worth little — or perhaps it’s 
man’s waste — and makes that thing, after a dose 
of brains and a civilized dress, worth good 
money. But a lazy man jumps a lot of land and 
sits down to listen to his neighbors holler for it. 
In your time, my son, the people will have their 
eyes open, and there ’ll be no land going that 
way. Then you’ll have to use your brains to 
think up new things.” 

“Sometimes it seems as if all the new things 
had been thought up.” 

“New things! Why, Billy, if every man 


STANDS THE TEST 


249 


should invent a new job there ’d still be as many 
coming. Look about you and see how many 
little things need fixing. And who has made use 
of sawdust? We burn millions of dollars’ worth 
every day. They’ll be making hot cross buns 
out of it some day. Look at the thistles, nettles, 
base ores, the millions burned up in sewage. 
Think of the untended, burned, and rotting for- 
ests, — billions go that way. Think of the deserts 
even along foggy sea coasts, — why, when we 
really use our brains we ’ll condense that fog, ir- 
rigate with it, and raise pineapples where the 
horned toad now preempts all the real estate.” 

He stopped a moment, rolled his cigar in his 
fingers, and looked out of the open door; while 
Billy, breathless, waited for him to go on. 

“ Think of the tide. Billy, men of the twenty- 
first century will run nearly everything in the 
world that calls for power by the force of the 
tide. They’ll turn it into acres of light, and 
heat, and force their garden truck with it. 
They’ll cook with it, grind with it, carry it up 
mountains and down into mines ; drive with it, 
fly with it, and laugh at us for troglodytes.” 

Both laughed softly, and Mr. Smith presently 


250 BILLY TO-MORROW 

rose. “ I guess I ’ll go down to the grade and 
kill time there. May Nell might come again; 
she does n’t have as much respect for business as 
you do, Billy.” 

“ Perhaps it would be the same with me if you 
were my father, though I don’t see — how — ” 
He hesitated, wondering what life would mean 
with such a man for father. 

“Perhaps so. Well, lie low. And don’t let 
the girls know you’re here.” 

With that Mr. Smith got into the machine 
and chugged off down the hill. 


CHAPTER XVI 


A NIGHT OF DISASTER 

B illy looked after him a moment thinking 
it rather a pleasant fancy to call mother and 
daughter “the girls,” but the situation quickly 
claimed his attention. It was still light, and 
May Nell might come to the garage and dis- 
cover him ; he would go to see the viaduct. 

He went by the lower gate and skirted the river, 
a river in volume, though called Tum-wah 
Creek. As he walked he mentally constructed 
the scene as it would look when Mr. Smith’s 
enterprises possessed the valley, — he heard the 
hum of mills and factories; on the peaceful lake 
below saw ships entering the canal from the 
Sound to load for ports, for the world’s far ports. 

He looked back at the beautiful mansion ; it 
would be a pity to see it desecrated, made into a 
boarding-house, perhaps. Yet Mr. Smith would 
move his summer home' farther on. It was the 


251 


252 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


way of this vast growing city, — to-day’s lovely 
suburb was to-morrow’s mart of business. 

Billy had barely walked around the viaduct, 
marvelling at the swiftness and secrecy of its 
building, when a low whistle halted him, and 
the tramp-philosopher came from the woods. 

“ Hello, Billy! Back in time for the rumpus, 
are you?” 

“What rumpus?” 

“ Hasn’t the boss put you wise? It’s coming 
sure.” 

“What’s coming?” 

“ There ’ll be a row down there to-night when 
the old man starts to close that gap in the rails. ” 

“ Oh, I guess not.” Billy turned away with 
more jauntiness than he felt. 

“See here, boy!” Billy could see that the 
man was serious and sober. “I know — those 
hounds have it in for Mr. Smith.” 

“ But surely he is prepared.” 

“For what will happen down there,” he 
pointed to the valley, “ but not here. The ladies 
— they came home.” 

“Mr. Smith didn’t expect them. It can’t be 
helped now.” 


STANDS THE TEST 


253 

“Not helped? Why doesn’t he send them to 
town?” 

Billy thought hard. Why didn’t he, to be 
sure? There must be some reason, — perhaps it 
must not be known that Mr. Smith expected 
trouble, — but whatever his motive Billy must 
stand by him, stand by May Neil and her mother. 
“ He had his reasons; it’s not for you or me to 
question them.” 

“ Perhaps not.” 

“Are you going down there?” Billy nodded 
toward the railroad. 

“No. He needs help here. They’d like to 
see this viaduct go up in smoke, those Tum-wah 
rascals.” 

“Gee! Will they do that?” Billy thought a 
minute. “Say! If you should need me, blow 
this whistle twice; but don’t do anything that 
will let the two at the house know I ’m there. 
See? ” Billy handed over his whistle. 

“ I ’m on. If you hear shots don’t be scared. 
I ’m heeled.” He showed a new revolver. 

They separated, and Billy hurried back to his 
place. So far there was nothing unusual in the 
quiet evening scene. Through the foliage he 


254 BILLY TO-MORROW 

could see May Nell and her mother in their 
summer white, sitting on the veranda; could 
hear the soft murmur of their intermittent con- 
versation, though no words. The evening was 
warm, and the fragrance of honeysuckle and 
mignonette heavy on the air. For years after- 
wards Billy never smelled them that he did not 
live over again the events of that awful night. 

Many times he made the rounds, stealthily, 
keeping most of the time near the garage lest he 
should be called. When he went in once for 
something, the clock said eleven; and the next 
time he looked toward the veranda, they were 
gone. The lower house was dark, but upstairs 
lights twinkled from two of the rooms; shortly 
they, too, were dark. 

Two men entered the radiance of the gateway 
lamps. Billy hastened down the drive to see if 
they went toward the viaduct; but they kept on 
up the road that led through the woods to some 
small ranches. 

For more than an hour all was quiet. Billy 
hoped the two in the house were sleeping calmly; 
hoped no hint of this night’s anxieties would 
ever come to them. Suddenly, unbidden, came 


STANDS THE TEST 


255 


the thought of fire! He knew how the stairways 
ran, how he could reach those rooms unless both 
stairways were cut off. In that case — was there 
a ladder? He measured with his eye the more 
than twenty feet between those windows and the 
sloping ground. 

He remembered seeing a ladder at the back of 
the garage, and went to look for it, but it was 
gone; and he wondered if it could have been 
placed in the basement for safe keeping while 
the servants were away. 

As he returned to his beat again, a ringing of 
metal struck through the darkness. It was the 
hammers! They had begun to lay the rails! 
Regularly, beat on beat, came the blows. Doz- 
ens of lanterns were bunched each side of the 
track, shedding a dim light. Billy wondered 
why Mr. Smith had not strung electric lamps on 
a sliding wire. Perhaps he did not want the 
Green Hills Power Company to know, — since 
he must buy power of them until his own plant 
was completed. 

Billy crept quickly back to his post near the 
garage, thinking Mr. Smith might call him. 
Again he saw the two men in the lamplight go- 


2s6 billy to-morrow 

ing by on the road, this time headed for Tum- 
wah. An uneasy suspicion came to him: What 
business had taken those men to the isolated 
ranches and back so late at night? 

A dozen answers, — business, illness, a tele- 
gram, — many legitimate errands might be theirs 
for this midnight trip. Yet Billy could not rid 
himself of his suspicion. 

The sounds from below came regularly, but 
more rapidly, as if some force were hurrying the 
workers. He could see the bent backs, and oc- 
casionally the glint of metal in the lantern light; 
could see the helpers move the stacked lights on, 
and hear the ring of the rails as they were 
dropped on the ties. 

The moon, red, lop-sided, and ragged, ap- 
peared over the Cascades. That meant it was 
past twelve o’clock. Billy was creeping care- 
fully by the house to patrol the farther line of 
fence, when the hammering below suddenly 
ceased; some of the lanterns went out, and noises 
of another sort drifted up to him, — angry voices, 
the whack of sticks and clubs, and then a shot. 

It had come, — the protest of blows! He 
could see the confused commingling of forms. 


STANDS THE TEST 257 

hear louder voices, and again the dull crash as of 
wooden weapons ; and in a moment a detonation 
— a blast. 

The road-bed — they must be blowing it up! 
Yet while Billy strained his eyes to catch the lo- 
cation of the blast, and the meaning of the turmoil 
that seemed a tragedy, he noticed a sudden still- 
ing of the commotion, and the shifting of the 
forms. One by one the lanterns were lighted 
again, and soon the hammers rang, now more 
rapidly than before. 

Billy understood. Mr. Smith had been pre- 
pared. He had seen that the law should be ready 
to aid him as soon as assistance was needed. The 
work would go right on, and Billy felt sure Mr. 
Smith would find a speedy way to repair what- 
ever damage might have been done. This out- 
rage so promptly met would surely stop any 
others that might have been contemplated. 

Relieved, he ran into the garage and picked 
up the sandwich and bottle of milk that were to 
be his lunch, and went out again where eye and 
ear might still be on duty. 

He did not eat. As he stepped out, a flame 
shot up at the side of the house. He rushed into 


258 BILLY TO-MORROW 

the garage to call up the fire department; 
but the moment he took down the receiver he 
knew the wires had been cut, — the telephone 
was “dead.” 

A cold horror swept him. Whatever was done 
he must do himself. He ran to find the garden 
hose and soon had a stream of water playing. 
The force was good, and he could see that he 
made headway against the flame. Ought he to 
cry out? Wake the sleepers? If he did, they 
would see — hear — No one could tell what 
might happen down there in the valley before 
the coming of the sun. He was gaining — the 
fire would soon be out. He would let them 
sleep. 

But this might not be the end. Those wires 
— where would the cut be? Near the grounds 
surely, for anywhere else they were in plain sight 
of all passers following the road. 

He was looking for the last hidden sparks and 
considering it safe to leave when a shot from the 
direction of the viaduct proclaimed that malevo- 
lence that night was missing no property belong- 
ing to Mr. Smith. A second shot rang out, and a 
third; and presently two men emerged from the 


STANDS THE TEST 


259 


forest running, the forward one stumbling and 
recovering only to fall again and rise no more. 
The second came toward the garage drive, and 
Billy knew him to be the tramp. 

He ran to open to him, explaining breathlessly 
about the fire and the wires as they hurried up 
the walk. 

“You take the hose and watch while I hunt 
where those wires are cut. I believe we shall 
need the fire engine.” 

“ It won’t do any good ; you can’t mend the cut 
if you find it. Better break into the house and 
bring out the women now.” 

“Wake them to all this turmoil, when it may 
not be necessary? No. I’ll find and splice 
those wires someway.” 

“ You ’ll get shocked, crippled, if not killed.” 

“Telephone wires don’t shock to hurt.” 

Without more parley Billy hurried out of the 
enclosure and around to where the line entered 
the grounds, finding what he expected. The 
wire had been cut near the pole. It was easy to 
tie the long end to the fence, but he was puzzled 
how to manage the other. 

The man — how had he reached the wire so 


26 o billy to-morrow 


high? He must have had a ladder — that was 
where the ladder went! Or — could he have 
brought one? Climbers! Of course. Billy’s 
heart sank, but rose again when he remembered 
that all poles at Tuk-wil-la were of iron. 

While thinking, he was hunting, slowly he 
thought, yet actually flying from place to place, 
diving into the greenery along the fence and 
leaving more than one drop of blood as tribute 
to the barbs. He found the ladder at last, a 
flimsy thing, and placed it against the pole. 

Wire! He must have wire. Like lightning 
his mind flashed from point to point of his diffi- 
culty. The clothes-line, — that was copper! He 
started back, running and thinking. How could 
he cut it? Must he take time to twist it in two, 
even supposing he could? It was such heavy 
wire. Tools in the garage? Yes, perhaps, and 
the chest locked; and while he hunted, precious 
moments would be going. 

The lawn-mower! Perhaps that would do the 
trick. He knew right where it was, and ran for 
it. Now he was at the line, pulling the end loose 
from its Staple, and wishing all the time the 
moon would get a move on and shine up 


STANDS THE TEST 


261 

brighter. Length by length he tore the wire 
from the arms of the clothes tree, each 
staple “ in harder than the last,” it seemed. He 
thought he had never been so weak, so slow. 

At last he had enough, and made a bight in it. 
Would the lawn-mower “ play up ” ? Yes! It 
cut the line in two, and Billy ran up the lad- 
der, soon making the connection. He got 
several light shocks and for a panic-stricken mo- 
ment trembled lest he could not let go, and 
should be marooned in the air. Yet he came 
safely through his task, and ran with his ladder 
to the garage to try the wire. 

Before he arrived he heard the bell ringing. 
The ’phone was alive! 

He went in and took the message. It was to 
say that Mr. Smith had gone to town and would 
be back in an hour. Billy knew this was from 
the Tum-wah office; and he told them there 
what had happened. He wondered if he should 
call the fire department on the chance of what 
might occur, but decided against it. 

Fatal mistake. He started toward the house 
to tell the other what he had done, beginning to 
speak at some distance, when a boom shattered 


262 BILLY TO-MORROW 


the very air around them, lifting and enveloping 
them. It came from beneath, almost at their feet 
it seemed, and both men staggered back half 
blinded. 

For an instant neither could understand what 
had happened. But for an instant only — less 
than a breath. The whole interior of the house 
flashed into light. Each window was a red and 
angry eye. 

“ The fire department — South 687 — call 
them up!” Billy commanded, grasping at the 
hand of the man and running with him, — he 
was going for the ladder. 

But the other pulled away. “The fire depart- 
ment can’t manage this! We must get the 
women out! Come, quick! They’ll be 
burned!” 

“Do as I tell you!” thundered Billy, break- 
ing loose. “ I ’ll get the ladder. Come to me as 
soon as you ’phone.” 

While he was shouting he had found the lad- 
der and was hurrying back. Both knew that a 
mine had been laid into the house, into the base- 
ment. The fire outside had been but a “ flash in 
the pan.” They knew the house must go; and 


STANDS THE TEST 263 

such a large fire at that season would endanger 
the forest, and many homes near. Tuk-wil-la 
was just within the city limits, and entitled to 
the services of the department; they must stop 
the fire there. 

It was but a few seconds from the time of the 
explosion before Billy was placing his ladder at 
one of the windows where the lights had 
twinkled so shortly before, calling May Nell’s 
name in tones that rang through the night. 

He knew that both stairways were cut off; 
whoever had prepared the mine had seen to that. 
“May Neil! Come to the east window!” Billy 
called again and again as he climbed nimbly, 
and plunged into the smoke and heat. 

“Yes, I’m here — in mama’s room — she’s 
fallen — I can’t lift her.” 

Billy heard the suffocation in her voice, the 
weakness. He knew the room, and groped his 
way on, calling, “Come this way! The ladder 
is at the other window! Come quick! I’ll 
bring your mother! ” 

Billy’s own words were choking, sputtering 
even though he was holding his head down. 
Where was he? Surely he had made no mistake. 


264 BILLY TO-MORROW 

was going the right way. “ May Nell ! Where ’s 
the door? Where are you?” But no voice an- 
swered, and for a breath Billy believed he could 
not go on. They were caught, lost! 

Yet that thought nerved him. Those two suf- 
focating — burning — The little girl he had suc- 
cored once before, the brightest, loveliest — Yes, 
in that instant his soul flashed a clear vision! 
She was the one. She had been the inspiration 
to the noblest deeds he had ever thought or 
hoped. She was the star of his life ! 

Some instinct guided him, — or was it his own 
soul? Something besides conscious volition led 
him through an open door, kept him calling, 
calling frantically, and crouching around the 
room to find the prostrate woman. “ May Nell ! 
May Nell! Speak! Where are you?” 

It was enough. Some shock from his soul to 
hers galvanized her to consciousness. She 
roused, answered feebly, and moved toward the 
bed where her mother had fallen. 

Billy lifted the insensible woman, turned 
swiftly back, and called encouragingly to May 
Nell. “Hold fast to me, girlie!” And when 



‘‘Give her to me; I am fresh/’ he said, attempting to take 
Mrs. Smith from Billy’s arms 






STANDS THE TEST 265 

he felt her grasp relax from his arm, “ Brace up 1 
Be game, Nelli We’re getting there!” 

Then he lost sense of time, of rational move- 
ment. Even the dead weight of his burden did 
not signify. He felt no emotion. He seemed 
only to be plodding on stolidly, while behind 
him flames roared and floors crashed. He felt 
the timbers sag suddenly, knew the fire was close 
upon them, yet he could not hurry. , 

But while smoke and heavy burden and heat 
dulled his mind, he was actually making incredi- 
ble haste. He felt the clearer air before he saw 
the open window, and arrived there to find the 
tramp waiting, the only one who had dared to 
enter the furnace. He had broken out the win- 
dow for them, sash and glass. 

“Give her to me; I am fresh,” he said, at- 
tempting to take Mrs. Smith from Billy’s arms. 

He was a small, slender man, and Billy dared 
not trust him. “Not her; here!” He pushed 
May Nell forward. 

But the little girl shrank back. “No, no! 
Mama first.” 

“Go!” Billy commanded, and thrust her into 
the awaiting arms. His brain was clear 


266 BILLY TO-MORROW 


enough now. The lighter pair must go first; the 
ladder would certainly bear them, if not the 
heavier two. Well, he must see that his own 
charge was somehow safely landed. 

They obeyed. People did obey Billy when he 
used that tone. Those who had gathered from 
the nearest houses steadied the ladder while the 
first two came down, and held out glad hands 
to receive them. 

But to Billy the rescuer below him seemed to 
creep. Would he never reach the ground? The 
floor trembled with a new shock. Billy heard 
the crash of another wall, saw the fire leap 
through the gap behind him, and daring the 
lesser danger he climbed out on the ladder. 
Even as he passed to the first rung a sheet of 
flame burst upon them shrouding them, reaching 
for them like some red, cosmic tongue that 
would lap them into the mouth of destruction. 

But they emerged. Billy felt the spring of the 
wood that announced its release from the weight 
of the other two, and hurried on with his pre- 
cious freight, knowing the danger, yet hoping 
the ladder would hold. Midway between fire 
and earth he heard a crack, a splintering, and 
felt the sag. 


STANDS THE TEST 267 

“Catch her!” he shouted hoarsely, and 
reached her down. 

His cry fixed attention on the descending 
woman, and she was safely caught and carefully 
borne to coolness and friends. But for Billy 
they were too late. Relieved of responsibility 
for others, he made no attempt to direct his fall 
— perhaps he could not have done so — but 
landed heavily in an inert heap. 

They lifted him tenderly. Almost at once he 
regained consciousness, and asked anxiously of 
May Nell and her mother. It was not till he 
was assured by his own eyes that both were safe, 
and that Mrs. Smith’s hurt was from a light fall 
that temporarily had stunned but had not harmed 
her, that he realized the meaning of the limp 
arm at his side. 


CHAPTER XVII 


BILLY WINS 

T he beautiful house and its contents van- 
ished before their eyes. The fire depart- 
ment arrived only in time to prevent the fire 
from spreading. Yet Mr. Smith said that the 
timber that would otherwise have gone was 
worth twenty times the value of the house, save 
for its sentiment. And even that was not what 
it would have been for an older home; the 
family treasures were at the town house. 

It was enough, the magnate said, to receive 
into his arms when he raced out from town, his 
loved ones safe, and except for shaken nerves, 
unhurt. 

It was not possible in the long trial that 
followed to find the “man at the top.” 
The poor ignorant foreigners who had been 
inflamed against Mr. Smith, and, while he 
slept, had entered his house and laid the train 
to its destruction, paid the penalty; while the 
one who tried to blow up the viaduct died 
268 


BILLY TO-MORROW 269 

from the tramp’s bullet. Billy’s evidence de- 
cided the coroner’s jury, for none of them ever 
saw the tramp after that night. 

The Tum-wah people could not be directly 
identified with the outrages, but investigation 
proved enough to cause the revocation of their 
franchise, and incidentally Alvin Short finished 
his career in stripes. 

Billy was taken to the hospital where his in- 
juries — except the broken arm — were soon 
healed. Here Mr. Smith came and more than 
once poured out his gratitude. 

“This ends it, Billy. We’ll have no more 
nonsense about working till you ’ve taken aboard 
your tools, your equipment of education and 
travel. It’s school now; you begin with the 
term. Hear?” 

Billy smiled his thanks. Later, when he was 
on his feet, would be time enough to explain 
that his life must be lived accordingTo his oiwn 
idea of duty. 

A few days after the fire Mrs. Bennett was 
surprised to receive an urgent call at the tele- 
phone in an unknown voice begging for an im- 


270 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


mediate interview; and a little later an excited 
young woman was at her door. 

“ I ’m Erminie Fisher,” she explained. “I ’ve 
come about Billy. How is he?” 

“He’s doing well; will soon be out of the 
hospital.” 

“And he won’t be crippled, scarred?” 

“No. In a few weeks he will be quite re- 
covered.” Mrs. Bennett could not throw cordi- 
ality into her tone. Loyal as Billy had been to 
Erminie his mother divined far more than he 
suspected of the part this girl had played in his 
life. 

“Oh, Mrs. Bennett, he’s the best boy in the 
world. He’s done so much for me. I saw in 
the paper what a hero he was at the fire, and I 
came right home. I — I — was so afraid I 
could n’t clear up everything, but now that I ’ve 
seen Mumps — Sydney Bremmer — and heard 
a lot from him, I think I can.” 

“ Sit here, where it is cooler,” Mrs. Bennett 
invited, pushing a chair to the open window. 
“Now tell me what you wish, — only that* don’t 
distress yourself.” 

The kinder words and tone cheered Erminie. 


STANDS THE TEST 


271 


She told the story of her acquaintance with Billy, 
of the picnic, of the attitude of the school bully, 
of the letter, the money, and of her growing con- 
viction that the letter was a forgery, and the 
taking of the money a theft. 

“And I came back to tell you, Mr. Wright, 
Professor Teal, — anybody who can help tell the 
truth for Billy. I Ve been a fool, I know it now ; 
but Billy sha’ n’t suffer another day for that.” 

Mrs. Bennett took Erminie’s hands in her 
own. “You are a brave girl. It has not been 
easy for you to do this, nor has it been easy for 
me to look on helpless, and see Billy’s life so 
early burdened.” 

“ He could have put himself right any day if 
he had told on me.” 

“ How is it you dared come home, since your 
father was so — so angry — ” Mrs. Bennett 
hesitated. 

“ I would have dared anything. I had made 
up my mind to set Billy right, no matter what 
happened to me. But my Uncle Henry fixed it. 
Anyway, after what Mr. Short did to dad, he 
was glad I did n’t marry the man, and dad ’s as 
pleased as ma to have me home again.” 


272 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


“You — wish Mr. Wright to know — what 
you’ve told me?” 

“Yes, yesl I want Billy to be cleared of 
everything, to go back to Fifth Avenue High re- 
spected as he deserves to be.” 

“Yet if — if you do this it will be hard for 
you. It’s past, and a pity for you to be exposed 
to censure when you were only the victim of cir- 
cumstances.” 

“Mrs. Bennett, Billy never hesitated to bear 
censure for me; now it’s my turn. Besides — ” 
She stopped and for the first time showed em- 
barrassment. “ I want you to know this, — Billy 
taught me some of the best things I know; and I 
loved him — I love him still. But now I know 
that it is not the kind of love a girl — a girl 
should have for the man she marries. I — I’m 
not going back on Billy, Mrs. Bennett. It’s — 
it’s — ” 

Mrs. Bennett reached Over and gently stroked 
her hair. “You need not hesitate. I quite com- 
prehend.” 

Erminie caught her hand. “ It ’s perfectly 
lovely of you to say that. I ’ve been feeling so 
mean — untrue to Billy — even while I ’ve been 


STANDS THE TEST 


273 


loving him all the time. But I’ve met a — a 
man, a good man, much older than Billy, and — 
and — ” 

“Yes, a man. Billy’s only a boy, but you are 
a woman.” 

“ It was Billy who set me to thinking. He 
told me many things you have said, and I began 
to see that even if I had loved Billy as — in the 
right way, it would have been wrong for us to 
marry.” 

“That is over now. Look to the future, and 
— I hope you will be very happy.” 

“ And may I bring Will — Mr. Harrington, 
to see you? He’s anxious to meet you, and 
Billy — all the family. And I want him to 
before — before I change my name.” 

Mrs. Bennett made the girl happy by her 
sympathy. Erminie summoned Sydney by tele- 
phone to meet them at Mr. Wright’s office, and 
there the two told their story. Mr. Wright sent 
a command to Jim Barney that brought him 
while they waited. He soon found his small 
knowledge of law and trickery no match for the 
astute lawyer, and he was very glad to accept 
immunity from prosecution on more than one 


274 BILLY TO-MORROW 

charge by a full confession of his misdeeds, and 
the payment to Billy of the money he had in- 
duced Erminie to take. 

When the interview was over Erminie and her 
lover went to the hospital, where she saw Billy 
first alone. 

Never had she seemed so dear and sweet to 
him as when she stood beside him telling the 
story of what she had done for him. And when, 
after a moment’s absence she brought her Cousin 
Will, looking so happy, and proud of him, Billy 
felt his heart bound with a great joy, the joy of 
freedom. 

“Here’s the dearest man in the world, Billy, 
and the best, next to you.” She looked sidewise 
at the well-made but rather short man beside 
her, with a trace of her old coquetry lurking in 
voice and manner. 

Billy shook the firm hand with his left one. 
“She has it twisted, Mr. Harrington. You’re 
the best man; I’m — I’m just a kid.” 

“ I wonder she ever looked at a man, then,” 
the other returned generously, waving his hands 
apart in recognition of the six feet of muscle and 
vigor that surmounted even the background of a 
hospital cot. 


STANDS THE TEST 275 

Two weeks later the great day came; the day 
when the City of Green Hills paid court to her 
young citizens ; when the Scouts marched by the 
reviewing stand, twelve hundred strong, and 
later performed their feats of skill in the compe- 
tition for honors; when the Young Citizens’ 
Clubs, boys and girls, each club led by its own 
band, in song and speech celebrated some great 
event in the history of their city, or prophesied 
her future greatness. 

Mr. Streeter told the multitude that this was 
but the beginning of a campaign for the promo- 
tion of civic pride, a pride that should foster art 
and beauty and civic honor, to the end that the 
City of Green Hills should be known through- 
out the land as the best as well as the most beau- 
tiful city in the world. 

“These things will make it the greatest. Do 
you think when it is known that this is the clean- 
est, the most beautiful, and the best governed 
city in America, that any power can withhold 
people from coming here? The American city 
that makes commercialism second to these three 
things will in ten years outgrow all others. Hu- 
manity hungers for such civic ideals and does n’t 
know it.” 


276 BILLY TO-MORROW 

Then came the explanation of the flag compe- 
tition and the announcement of the winner. 
Billy thought the highest possible note of joy 
had been sounded, — for his design had won. 

There above them all, at the moment of Mr. 
Streeter’s announcement, the banner was run up 
the tall pole and beneath the Stars and Stripes 
flung out to the breeze, the official flag of the 
City of Green Hills. 

Cheers upon cheers! And Billy was called. 
When he stepped to the platform, his arm still in 
the sling, but otherwise rosy with health and joy, 
the audience rose, and cheers from the men, and 
fluttering handkerchiefs from the women, made 
Billy wonder if this was just plain earth or some 
other more glorious planet. 

After an almost imperceptible silence came 
the yell of his school, given with a gusto that 
told him he had been reinstated in their favor. 

He made his bow and a modest speech. In 
the crowd near the platform were May Nell and 
Erminie. And as he finished, it was into May 
Nell’s eyes he looked, and knew who held his 
heart. 

The exercises were over, the crowd began to 


STANDS THE TEST 


277 

move. He went down and took her hand. And 
at that moment came again a ringing cry, 
“What’s the matter with Billy To-morrow? 
Billy To-morrow’s Billy To-day 1 He’s all 
right 1 Rah, rah, rah, Billy I” 


THE END 


SOME OPINIONS OF MRS. CARR’S 
FIRST SUCCESS 


BILLY TO-MORROW 


‘‘It is a powerful story, the scene of which is laid in 
California after the great earthquake. It is admirably 
told, and makes a strong appeal to all that is best in a 
young person’s nature.” — Philadelphia Public Ledger, 

“A splendid story of a boy’s love and courage.” — 
Hartford Courant, 

“This is a good story of a California boy who learned 
lessons of manliness and chivalry from a little refugee girl 
received by his mother after the great fire. The boy reader 
may be trusted to enjoy it and without having his pleasure 
spoiled by the suspicion of a moral.” — The Argonaut, 

“All in all it is a splendid story for boys.” — Education, 

“Sarah Pratt Carr has invented a lovable young hero in 
her bright story, ‘Billy To-Morrow.’ So full of incident is 
the story that it will hold the interest of boy and girl readers 
from the first chapter to the last.” — Des Moines Capital, 

“The story is full of life and action and good sense.” — 
Spokane Spokesman- Review , 

“Should appeal to every full-blooded youngster.” — 
San Francisco Bulletin, 


A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers 

CHICAGO 


PRESS OPINIONS REGARDING MRS. CARR’S 


Billy To-Morrow in Camp 

“Here are a crowd of real boys in a delightful vacation camp. The 
interest is sustained from the beginning to the end. The publishers 
have done their part to make the book attractive, paper, type, binding 
and illustrations are all of the best, and the picture of Billy on the cover 
almost equals our ideal of him. Mrs. Carr is to be congratulated on 
having given to American young people one of the best books which 
has been written for them since the death of Miss Alcott and one which 
places her in the very front rank of writers of juvenile fiction.’’ 

— The Week-End {Seattle). 

“A good, exciting, and wholesome story of a group of boys who 
‘camp out’ on the shores of Puget Sound, and have lots of fun and 
some troubles.’’ — Cincinnati Times Star. 

“It gives in an interesting style the adventures of a boy with a big 
heart and unusual courage. The fascinations of camp life are well 
portrayed. A good wholesome story for boys.” 

— The United Presbyterian 

“A boy’s book, full of all the exciting incidents that belong to a 
camping-out life by a group of bright lads who are bent on enjoyment 
of the freedom of the woods. There are many things which would 
naturally happen to a bright young lad in camp and which many bright 
young lads not in camp will delight to read.” — Journal of Education. 

“A lively and vivacious story which will gladden any sort of boy.” 

— The Post Intelligencer {Seattle) . 

“Here is a new hero in boy literature, though not entirely new, as 
this is his second appearance between book covers. The popularity 
and success of the earlier book, ‘Billy To-morrow,’ and its adoption 
as the title of a series indicates that this manly, full-blooded, lovable 
young character is to be with us some time. The story has much life, 
action, and withal, good sense, and it carries the best sort of moral 
along with an enjoyable story without the reader the least expecting it. 
‘Billy’ has a promising career ahead of him.” 

— The Normal Instructor. 

“The story is a jolly one of outdoor camping experiences, with the 
boy’s practical devices for comfort which young readers may find help- 
ful for similar occasions.” — The Continent. 

A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers 

CHICAGO 




NOV 8 


191 1 




: 'I ' • 






One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



NOV U !9!3 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Q0D5117D15A 


